hankyoreh

Woo Cheol-mun (left), the head of the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency, leaves the podium after delivering a briefing on Jan. 10 regarding the stabbing of Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung. The man who stabbed Lee, an individual surnamed Kim (right), is handed over to prosecutors at the Yeonje Police Station in Busan on Jan. 10. (Yonhap)

“I will stop South Korea from being overtaken by left-wing forces by preventing the Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung from becoming president.”

South Korean police have released an excerpt from the manifesto a 67-year-old individual surnamed Kim wrote before attacking Lee with intent to kill him. Kim is also said to have expressed the same sentiments repeatedly while being investigated by police.

Ideas of “priming the pump for action,” “saving the country”

At a briefing on Wednesday, police revealed that Kim’s behavior and statements led them to believe that his violent attack on the opposition party leader was a premeditated crime motivated by fanatical political beliefs.

The overall content and frequent phrases quoted in the briefing echoed rhetoric utilized by right-wing YouTubers and the far-right “Taegeukgi rallies.”

Police say Kim had been working on a draft of a manifesto since April 2023. In the text itself, which came to 7,446 characters in Korean, he wrote: “North Korean sympathizers within the judiciary are delaying Lee’s trial, keeping him from the punishment he deserves. If [Lee has] nominating authority in the upcoming April general election, the National Assembly will fall to forces who’ve gone left. Not only that, but if Lee becomes president, the country will be overtaken by left-wing forces, so I will put a stop to that. I will make my intentions known and take action, priming the pump for action and aspiration by free people to save the country.”

The police announced that through a combination of digital forensic investigations, witness statements, and extensive profiling, they believed that Kim carried out this “extreme crime” based on his subjective political convictions.

Joined Lee’s party in spring 2023 when preparing for attack

Kim was thorough when it came to preparing for his assault. In April 2023, a full year before the general election, he bought a camping knife online and sharpened its back and blade. He also modified the knife’s handle to make it easier for him to carry out the attack.

In order to gain easy access to Lee, he made a paper headband in the shape of a crown and hand-held banners with the slogans “I am Lee Jae-myung” and “To Winning 200 Seats!”

It was around this time that Kim joined the Democratic Party. Since June 2023, he, with his modified weapon in his bag, stalked Lee five times to locations such as Bongha in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province, and Pyeongsan in Yangsan. He was able to track Lee’s course of movement using the Democratic Party’s official website, police said. 

To avoid leaving any traces, he only used cash on public transportation. On the day before the attack, he removed his phone’s SIM card to avoid being tracked, and only paid cash for his trips on the KTX, city rail, taxi and bus.

Police say no sign of accomplices or mastermind behind the scenes

Before carrying out his attack, Kim asked a man in his 70s who agreed to assist him to send seven envelopes containing his manifesto to his family and others if he succeeded, but only two to his family if he failed.

After the attack, the man tore up and discarded five letters that had been intended to be sent to various media outlets, and attempted to send the remaining two to Kim’s family.

The police made an emergency arrest on Sunday evening and confiscated the two letters in question. The man was booked without detention on suspicion of aiding and abetting attempted murder. 

“Based on a comprehensive analysis of Kim’s behavior and the fact that he acted alone before the crime, we have concluded that there seems to be no accomplices or forces behind the scenes who worked with him to plan the crime,” a police official said. 

Lee’s party calls for re-investigation

In response to the police’s findings, the Democratic Party is calling for a re-investigation on the basis that the investigation failed to root out any accomplices or masterminds behind the attack.

“What the public wants to know most is the crux of the case, which involves the motive of the terrorist attack, whether accomplices exist, and who is behind the scenes. We demand an immediate and comprehensive re-investigation by the police and investigative authorities,” stated Jeon Hyun-heui, the head of the Democratic Party’s task force against political terrorism, at a meeting of the task force on Wednesday. 

By Kim Yeong-dong, Busan correspondent

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