The South Korean man taken into custody after allegedly attacking the US ambassador to Seoul on Thursday morning has been identified as a pro-North Korea activist opposed to America's involvement in Korean affairs.
Kim Ki-jong was seized by the security detachment accompanying Mark Lippert, who was only appointed ambassador last year, but not before he had slashed the envoy's face, arms and wrist with a paring knife with a 10-inch blade.
Mr Lippert, 42, had been about to have breakfast before delivering a speech at a venue in central Seoul at around 7.40 a.m. when Kim attacked him from behind, as he yelled "No war. South and North Korea should be reunified."
Video footage broadcast on South Korean television shows Mr Lippert clutching a handkerchief to his cheek and with blood dripping from his left hand. He was rushed to a nearby hospital before being transferred to another hospital in western Seoul to undergo an operation.
Mr Lippert has since undergone 2.5 hours of plastic and orthopaedic surgery for the wounds to his cheek and wrist and is expected to remain in hospital for 2-3 days.
"We strongly condemn this act of violence", a spokeswoman for the State Department said.
Kim is well-known to South Korean authorities and was arrested in 2010 for hurling blocks of concrete at the Japanese ambassador as he gave a lecture in Seoul. Kim was protesting against Japan's claim to two rocky islands between the Korean peninsula and Japan that are occupied South Korea but claimed by Tokyo.