“We strongly condemn this act of violence,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said. As reported from the scene of the attack, the assailant was dressed in traditional Korean clothing. He was identified as 55-year-old Kim Ki-jong. Five years ago he tried to attack the Japanese ambassador to Seoul by throwing a piece of concrete and was given a suspended jail term. This time he used a small fruit knife in the attack. He was motivated to sustain that North and South Korea should be reunited and protested against “war exercises”, a reference to annual joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises that began this week. South Korean President Park Geun-hye, speaking in the United Arab Emirates, called the incident an “attack on the South Korea-U.S. alliance.”
