On March 7, 2022, on the eve of the presidential elections in South Korea, the leader of the Democratic Party, Song Young-gil, was campaigning in Seoul’s Sinchon district and became the victim of an assassination attempt. The attacker approached him from behind and hit him on the head several times with a hammer wrapped in a black plastic bag.
The extremist, who was later identified as a YouTuber in his 70s, was immediately detained by people at the scene and taken into police custody. According to an eyewitness, the man shouted at the scene that he opposed the military exercises of South Korea and the United States and could not leave such a world to the youth.
The attacker was identified as a 70-year-old YouTuber who, before attacking Son, filmed his actions on his phone and previously followed the victim in videos uploaded to YouTube. He was wearing a Korean national costume, and this is important: while women’s traditional clothing is just a sign of fashion, the male version of the traditional costume is mainly worn by representatives of ultra-left nationalists, for whom it is a way to demonstrate commitment to the values of national culture.
Son was rushed to the emergency department of the nearest hospital, where he had his wounds stitched. Already on March 8, the day after he was wounded, he was discharged from the hospital and wrote on his Facebook page: “I was hit on the head with a hammer from behind, but fortunately no critical parts were injured. Since there is no brain hemorrhage, I will leave the hospital and join the final election rallies.”
President Moon Jae-in condemned the attack: “Election violence is terror against democracy. This should never have happened. Hatred and violence cannot change the world.”
The electoral headquarters of the Democratic Party stated that it strongly condemns the attack as a serious threat to democracy. The “Power of the People” party and its candidate Yoon Suk-yeol also condemned the attack as a threat to democracy and wished Son a speedy recovery. “Violent actions are not acceptable no matter the reason.”
At the moment, the old would-be murderer has been arrested, and he is being interrogated by the police on charges of violating the election law and assaulting a person. On March 10, Song Young-gil announced that he and the entire leadership of the ruling Democratic Party were planning to resign en masse – a tribute to political tradition.
In the Russian media, the assassination attempt on Son attracted special attention. Such a shocking attack on a major political figure is the first one since the beginning of the presidential race, and, apart from the rule of Lee Seung-man, street terror attacks against politicians of this rank in South Korea are a rare thing.
The first thing that comes to mind is the assassination attempt on Park Geun-hye on May 20, 2006, when she spoke at a rally in support of her party’s candidate for mayor of Seoul. Suddenly, one of the people who came to the rally – a 50-year-old man Ji Chung-ho, who had eight criminal records, hit her in the face with a paper knife. The 11-centimeter cut deeply dissected the muscles of the jaw, Park had 60 stitches during her long surgery.
Let’s also recall two incidents involving a man named Kim Ki-jong. This figure led a patriotic organization in which he denounced Japan, fought against the “distortion of history” and conducted other unusual events as a typical representative of “professional” patriots supported by the state.
In 2012, against the background of another escalation around the island of Dokdo, he attempted to attack the Japanese ambassador, but only wounded the female interpreter. Although this was the first assassination attempt on a foreign diplomat in the Republic of Korea, the state “showed understanding for the situation” and Kim received a suspended sentence. Apparently, this convinced him of his impunity, and three years later he tried to pull off a similar attack on the American ambassador Mark Lippert, cutting his face with a fruit-cutting knife. But America is not the same as Japan, and Kim got a 12-year sentence, and in the process of arrest had his leg “accidentally” broken.
For the author, this story illustrates several trends. Firstly, it shows how high the level of public frenzy was, which makes people fall into an inadequate state. The age of the attacker and his relative notoriety prevent possible conspiracy theories, and the only thing the author knows about his motives and preparation is the phrase “I’m sorry” which he said when he appeared in court to be charged.
This is not the only such event in the current election campaign in the Republic of Korea. On March 11, the police found a 30-year-old man from among the supporters of Lee Jae-myung, who was so desperate because of the defeat of the candidate from the ruling party in the presidential election that he went missing, leaving a suicide note. After the defeat of the Democratic candidate was confirmed, a man who ran an online community in support of Lee wrote that he had lost half of his soul and suffered malicious slander and threats while running the online forum. However, a day later he was found in good health and handed over to his family.
The problems that the new president will have to deal with include this one. Such intensity will manifest itself both in the assessment of his activities and in the possible level of resistance to his political course.
Secondly, along with the rest of the incidents, this one shows that, despite the statements of some Democratic party members and supporters about the coming fascist terror, which will definitely begin with the assumption of office by Yoon Suk-yeol, so far only “professional patriots” from among the supposedly left-wing supporters have turned to using knives or hammers to commit assaults.
Thirdly, it should be noted that the person who opposed the joint exercises of the United States and the Republic of Korea, for some reason, attacked a Democratic party official, rather than a conservative (the political community of the latter advocates strengthening cooperation between Seoul and Washington (including military cooperation). And this despite the fact that the videos on his YouTube channel were rather pro-government.
Fourth, it forces the author to admit that although Lee Jae-myung admitted defeat, and there was no analogue of the events of 2020 in the United States, the period of dual power until May, when Yoon finally assumes power, may be turbulent.
Konstantin Asmolov, PhD in History, leading research fellow at the Center for Korean Studies of the Institute of the Far East at the Russian Academy of Sciences, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
