Tag: Mark Lippert

US Ambassador Claims Kimchi Helping In His Recovery

| March 9, 2015

You can tell Ambassador Lippert is playing to the crowd while he recovers:

kimchi image

Doctors at Yonsei University Severance Hospital said Sunday that U.S. Ambassador to Korea Mark Lippert is recovering fast and may go home as early as Tuesday afternoon.

“Ambassador Lippert feels overwhelmed by the messages of support for him,” the embassy’s minister-counselor for public affairs, Robert W. Ogburn, said during a press conference. “The ambassador said kimchi is helping him recover.”

Dr. Yoon Do-heum, the head of the hospital, said during a media briefing that the 80 stitches Lippert received for a facial injury would be removed today, and the pain in his left wrist was easing.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link such as Ambassador Lippert saying he is reading the “Two Koreas” by Don Oberdorfer while he is recovering.  This book in my opinion is the best modern Korean history 101 book out there.  With that said I would of thought that Lippert would of read this book before becoming Ambassador?  Either that or is he just playing to the crowd again?

Despite Past Anti-American Actions, Attacker was Invited To Event with Ambassador Lippert

| March 7, 2015

Here is what the attacker of US ambassador Mark Lippert is saying after being interrogated by police:

A 55-year-old South Korean activist was taken into custody Friday on charges of attempting to murder the top U.S. diplomat in Seoul.

Kim Ki-jong also faces charges of violence against a foreign envoy and business obstruction in the shocking attack on U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert the previous day.

Wielding a 25-centimeter fruit knife, Kim slashed the ambassador five times at a performance hall in downtown Seoul where the envoy was to give a speech. The wounds weren’t life-threatening, but the attack left a deep gash extending from the envoy’s right chin to cheek, requiring more than 80 stitches.

The Seoul Central District Court issued an arrest warrant for Kim, saying “The reason and the necessity of his arrest were fully explained.”

Before entering the court for a hearing to review the legality of his arrest, Kim said he had no ties to North Korea.

“That’s nonsense,” he told reporters when asked about the police investigation into the possibility.

He denied being sympathetic to Pyongyang and having ever been to the country despite police announcements earlier to the contrary.

He also shook his head when asked if he had an intent to kill and said there was no one else involved.

Kim had previously told police officers that he plotted the attack to stop the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercises that kicked off earlier this week.

The exercises are part of Seoul and Washington’s efforts to better deter threats from North Korea. Kim said he thought the drills hampered efforts to re-unify the two Koreas as they remain technically at war since the Korean War in the 1950s ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Hwang Sang-hyeon, Kim’s attorney, also said the attack was not premeditated.

In mid-February, Kim received a letter of invitation from the organizer, and it was then he decided to confront the ambassador about the joint military drills, according to Hwang.

“He hadn’t planned on bringing the knife until (Thursday) morning,” Hwang told reporters as he took from a break from police interrogation late Thursday. “He was trying to alarm the U.S. but had nothing personal against the ambassador.” [Yonhap]

Who is their right mind would invite someone like Kim Ki-jong to an event like this with the US ambassador.  This was asking for trouble. It makes me wonder if the event organizer intentionally invited Kim just to cause an incident or it was just total incompetence?

US Ambassador to South Korea Recovering After Knife Attack

| March 6, 2015

Best wishes to US Ambassador Mark Lippert as he recovers from the cowardly knife attack by a Korean leftist:

A knife attack Thursday that injured the U.S. ambassador to South Korea is the latest act of political violence in a deeply divided country where some protesters portray their causes as matters of life and death.

The slashing of Ambassador Mark Lippert’s face and arm, which left deep gashes and damaged tendons and nerves, was an extreme example, but America infuriates some leftist South Koreans because of its role in Korea’s turbulent modern history.

Washington, which backed the South during the 1950-53 Korean War against the communist North, still stations nearly 30,000 troops here and holds annual military drills with Seoul. That’s something anti-U.S. activists view as a major obstacle to their goal of an eventual reunification of the rival Koreas.

Purported U.S. interference in Korean affairs appeared to be the main grievance of the man police named as the assailant, Kim Ki-jong, 55, who has a long history of anti-U.S. protests.

“South and North Korea should be reunified,” Kim shouted as he slashed Lippert with a 25-centimeter (10-inch) knife, police and witnesses said.

The attack left a gash on Lippert’s face that started under his cheekbone and extended diagonally across his cheek toward his jawbone. He received 80 stiches to close the 11-centimeter (4-inch) wound, Chung Nam-sik of Severance Hospital told reporters. Lippert, 42, also had surgery on his arm to repair damage to tendons and nerves and was in stable condition at the hospital.  [Associated Press]

The leftist Kim Ki-jong who was involved in the attack has a long history of violence to include attacking the Japanese ambassador to Korea with a concrete block.  He says he attacked Lippert because of the ongoing US-ROK Key Resolve military exercise:

Kim is well-known among police and activists as one of a hard-core group of protesters willing to use violence to highlight their causes. Such protesters often speak of their actions in terms of a war, of a struggle to the death.

Kim told police that he attacked Lippert to protest U.S.-South Korean military drills that started Monday — exercises that the North has long maintained are preparations for an invasion. Kim said the drills, which Seoul and Washington say are purely defensive, ruined efforts for reconciliation between the two Koreas, officials at Seoul’s Jongno police station said in a televised briefing.

Here is what North Korea had to say about the attack:

North Korea’s state-controlled media later crowed that Kim’s “knife slashes of justice” were “a deserved punishment on war maniac U.S.” and reflected the South Korean people’s protests against the U.S. for driving the Korean Peninsula to the brink of war because of the joint military drills.

The real question is if any of the North Korean spies within South Korea sent Kim to conduct this attack or not?  Another question is what was the security like around the Ambassador to allow this leftist loon to get access to the Ambassador?  You would think they would have increased security for him during the Key Resolve exercise?

Also keep in mind this is the not the first political knife slashing to happen in recent years.  In 2006 current President Park Geun-hye was slashed across the face by a knife wielding man:


Image via the BBC.

Park needed 60 stitches to seal the cut.  Ambassador Lippert’s wound looks much worse.  Anyway the person convicted of slashing President Park received 11 years in jail.  I think Kim Ki-jong’s days of protesting the US are over because he will likely receive a very long sentence to send a message to these leftist loons.  South Korea also needs to take a stronger stance when people commit violent acts against the Japanese embassy in South Korea as well.  As this attack shows these loons get emboldened when they are not properly punished after committing violent acts against the Japanese embassy.

 

8th Army Awards First Sgt. Kim Sang-won Distinguished Former KATUSA Award

| January 25, 2015

Most of the Korea Times article is about Ambassador Mark Lippert who is making a good first impression with the Korean public, but here is what I found most interesting about the article:

The latest instance of his “friendly diplomacy” was his attendance at the New Year reception for the KATUSA Veterans Association, Thursday.

“Primarily, I was not given liberty. Tonight was that my wife wanted me to pick up something at the PX for the baby. So, I’m on borrowed time,” Lippert said during the event, referring to his son, who was born here, Tuesday.

The event was the only public event he kept this week, the 41-year-old added.

His wit also brought about laughs when he had to give an impromptu speech because of an unexpected technical problem with his tablet computer.

“For the first time, I was going to give my speech from my Microsoft tablet, but it froze immediately, literally seconds before. So seriously, it is going to be an interesting speech,” Lippert said.  (…………………..)

In honor of the unbreakable bond that develops between 8th U.S. Army soldiers and their KATUSA soldiers, Lt. Gen. Bernard Champoux, the 8th Army’s commanding general, has created an annual award for former KATUSA soldiers who have gone on to distinguish themselves in their careers and contributions to Korean society and the alliance.

“I would also like to announce the establishment of the Sgt. Kim Sang-won Distinguished Former KATUSA Award,” said Champoux.

Sgt. Kim served as a KATUSA with the 17th Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division during the Korean War and participated in more than 300 combat patrols, including the drive to the Amrok River in late 1950. For his fighting spirit and unflappable courage, Kim was later awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in action during one of his numerous patrols.

The inaugural award winner was Yoon Yoon-soo, chairman and CEO of Fila International. [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but congratulations to Mr. Yoon Yoon-soo for being the first awardee of the Sgt. Kim Sang-won Distinguished Former KATUSA Award.  I bet there is a lot of other former KATUSAs out there doing great things in public service and in the business community and this award is a way to highlight this fact.

President Obama Tells New Korean Ambassador To Eat A Lot of Bulgogi

| October 26, 2014

I think it is pretty accurate that President Obama has a close relationship with a the new US Ambassador to Korea:

U.S. President Barak Obama made a surprise appearance at the swearing-in ceremony Friday of new U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert in a show of his closeness and friendship with the new envoy, officials said.

Obama showed up at the end of the ceremony at the State Department, South Korean Ambassador to Washington Ahn Ho-young said during his own reception for the new ambassador later in the day. Ahn quoted Obama as telling him, “Give Mark Lippert a lot of bulgogi.” [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.