Yonhap news agency says that a Seoul court has given a 12-year prison term to a South Korean man who slashed and seriously injured the U.S. ambassador during a March forum.
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The agreement followed an explosion of landmines, which killed two South Korean soldiers, on the southern side of the demilitarised zone, on its border with North Korea.
It also noted that the defendant had “shown no repentance, attempting to justify his actions throughout the trial”.
Prosecutors said they would appeal the acquittal.
From New York, the chief envoy to the stalled six-party talks on ending North Korea’s nuclear programme will travel to Washington, where he is due to meet his U.S. counterpart, Ambassador Sung Kim, on Wednesday.
As my colleague Adam Chandler reported at the time, the attack occurred moments before Lippert was set to speak at a meeting organized by the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation, which advocates for peaceful reunification between the two Koreas.
The attackers went after the vulnerability (CVE-2015-6585) in the Hangul Word Processor prior to a patch issued last Monday.
It was not Kim’s first attack on a top diplomat.
He was then taken from the court in a wheelchair he has been using as the result of a leg injury sustained while being tackled to the ground after the assault. He was acquitted of a third charge of violating the National Security Act.
The allegation had been fueled by Kim’s opposition to joint military drills involving South Korea and the U.S., which have also been regularly condemned by Pyongyang.
Lippert suffered seven wounds in the attack, with the slash across his right cheek coming within an inch of his carotid artery. This week, he posted photos on his Twitter account of him and his wife, Robyn, walking in a central Seoul park with their dog, who has his own following among Koreans. Lippert was targeted because he was an accessible symbol of the U.S., they said.
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The U.S. Embassy declined comment on the sentencing and pointed to statements made earlier this year by Lippert saying he is recovering well.
