Seoul, Jan 20 (.) South Korea officially designated President Lee Jae Myung’s stabbing incident in January 2024 as a terrorist act, multiple media outlets said Tuesday. Prime Minister Kim Min-seok presided over the national counter-terrorism committee meeting, formally recognizing the 2024 incident as a terrorist act. It marked the first official designation since the anti-terrorism act was established in 2016.
Lee, then opposition leader of the Democratic Party, was stabbed on the left side of his neck with a modified knife by a man in his 60s who disguised himself as a supporter and approached Lee, who was visiting the construction site of the new Gadeokdo airport near the southeastern port city of Busan in January 2024.
Lee suffered a laceration and damage to his internal jugular vein, and the top court finalized a 15-year prison sentence for the assailant in February 2025.
The Democratic Party had raised allegations that the National Intelligence Service (NIS) under the impeached former President Yoon Suk-yeol downplayed and distorted the incident by destroying evidence at the scene and failing to designate it as a terrorist act. An additional investigation to uncover the full truth behind the incident will be conducted, according to the prime minister’s office.
. XINHUA PPP .