Attack on Opposition Leader Raises Alarms in Divided South Korea

The person accused of stabbing Lee Jae-myung, the chief of South Korea’s primary opposition get together, within the neck had been stalking him in current weeks, together with attending a political occasion the place Mr. Lee was current on Dec. 13, apparently captured on video there carrying a blue paper crown, the police say.

At a rally on Tuesday, a person carrying the same paper crown and carrying a message supporting Mr. Lee and his get together was additionally carrying one thing else: a knife with a five-inch blade and a plastic deal with wrapped with duct tape.

The assault, the worst in opposition to a South Korean politician in almost 20 years, critically wounded Mr. Lee, who officers mentioned was recovering in an intensive care unit at Seoul Nationwide College on Wednesday after surgical procedure. And it deeply shocked a rustic that values hard-won years of relative peace after an period of political and navy violence earlier than establishing democracy within the Nineties.

The police mentioned that the suspect, a 66-year-old actual property agent named Kim Jin-seong, had admitted an intent to kill Mr. Lee. Armed with a court-issued warrant, the police confiscated Mr. Kim’s cell phone and raided his residence and workplace in Asan, south of Seoul, on Wednesday, as they tried to piece collectively what might need motivated that assault.

With particulars nonetheless scarce, public debate and information editorials had been expressing a rising concern about South Korea’s deepening political polarization and the hatred and extremism it has appeared to encourage, in addition to the challenges it posed to the nation’s younger democracy.

“The opposition chief falls below a knife of ‘politics of hatred,’” learn a headline from the Chosun Ilbo, the nation’s main conservative each day.

Officers mentioned that little was recognized about Mr. Kim’s private life or political and different background besides that he was a former authorities official who had been working an actual property company in Asan since 2012. Police discovered no earlier data of crime, drug use or psychiatric bother, and mentioned he was sober on the time of the assault on Mr. Lee. His neighbors mentioned that they had little interplay with him.

One neighbor remembered him as a sort and hard-working “gentleman” who stored his workplace open day by day, even on weekends, however who didn’t converse with him about politics and lived alone in an residence.

“He’s not somebody who’d do such a factor,” mentioned Park Min-joon, who runs a constructing administration firm. “I couldn’t consider it.”

The deep and bitter rivalry between Mr. Lee and President Yoon Suk Yeol has been middle stage in South Korea’s political polarization since 2022, when Mr. Lee misplaced to Mr. Yoon with the thinnest margin of any free presidential election in South Korea. As an alternative of retiring from politics, as some presidential candidates have after defeats, Mr. Lee ran for — and gained — a parliamentary seat, in addition to chairmanship of the opposition Democratic Get together.

Underneath Mr. Yoon, state prosecutors have launched a collection of investigations in opposition to Mr. Lee and tried to arrest him on varied corruption and different legal fees. Mr. Yoon has additionally refused to grant Mr. Lee one-on-one conferences that South Korean presidents had usually provided opposition leaders to hunt political compromises. As an alternative, he has repeatedly characterised his political opponents as “anti-state forces” or “corrupt cartels.”

For his half, Mr. Lee accused Mr. Yoon of deploying state law-enforcement forces to intimidate his enemies. His get together has refused to endorse lots of Mr. Yoon’s appointees to the Cupboard and the Supreme Court docket. Political commentators likened the connection between Mr. Yoon and Mr. Lee to “gladiators’ politics.”

“The 2 have been on a collision course for 2 years,” mentioned Park Sung-min, head of MIN Consulting, a political consultancy. “President Yoon has been accused of not recognizing Lee Jae-myung as an opposition chief however somewhat as a legal suspect. I don’t assume his perspective will doubtless change following the knife assault in opposition to Lee.”

The final main assault on a home political chief occurred in 2006, when Park Geun-hye, then an opposition chief, was slashed within the face with a field cutter. However the assault was seen largely as an remoted outburst of anger by an ex-convict who complained of mistreatment by the regulation enforcement system. (Ms. Park went on to win the 2012 presidential election.)

However lately, politicians have been more and more uncovered to hatred within the public sphere, as political polarization deepened. In a survey sponsored by the newspaper Hankyoreh in December, greater than 50 p.c of respondents mentioned they felt the political divide worsening. In one other survey in December, commissioned by the Chosun Ilbo, 4 out of each 10 respondents mentioned they discovered it uncomfortable to share meals or drinks with individuals who didn’t share their political beliefs.

South Koreans had an early inkling of the present drawback. In the course of the presidential election marketing campaign in 2022, Track Younger-gil, an opposition chief, was attacked by a bludgeon-wielding man in his 70s, who subsequently killed himself in jail.

Jin Jeong-hwa, a YouTuber whose channel brazenly helps Mr. Lee and who live-streamed the knife assault on Tuesday, mentioned he might really feel the growing political rigidity and hatred on a regular basis. As soon as, when he visited a conservative city in central South Korea, individuals who acknowledged him tried to chase him out, threatening him with knives and sickles.

“You see plenty of anger, vilification, character assassination and demonizing,” Mr. Jin mentioned. “I’m not certain whether or not rational debate on points and ideologies is feasible anymore.”

On Wednesday, Mr. Yoon wished Mr. Lee a fast restoration, calling assaults in opposition to politicians “an enemy of free democracy.” His authorities ordered beefed-up public safety for politicians.

However analysts noticed little probability of political polarization easing anytime quickly because the rival events equipped for parliamentary elections in April. Social media, particularly YouTube, has develop into so influential as a channel of spreading information and shaping public opinion that politicians mentioned they discovered themselves beholden to populist calls for from activist YouTubers who had been extensively accused of stoking worry and hatred.

Each Mr. Yoon and Mr. Lee have fervent on-line supporters who usually resort to whipping up insults, conspiracy theories and even thinly veiled loss of life threats in opposition to their foes.

“Hate has develop into a each day norm” in South Korean politics, mentioned Mr. Park, the pinnacle of MIN Consulting. “Politicians should face the fact that comparable issues can occur once more,” he mentioned, referring to the knife assault in opposition to Mr. Lee.