Prosecutors said they would appeal the acquittal.
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S. Korea had wanted reunions before October 10, as a rocket launch by North Korea could complicate the event Staff members from the South and North Korean branches of the Red Cross held a marathon meeting that continued around the clock from September .
The attacker, Kim Ki-jong, 55, had attacked Lippert in March at a forum discussing Korean reunification. Lippert was treated for five days at a Seoul hospital. He had also been charged with assaulting a foreign envoy and business obstruction in the March 5 attack.
“We continue to deeply appreciate the strong support of the Korean people and the Korean government following the attack on Ambassador Lippert in March”.
Lippert underwent two-and-a-half hours of surgery after the attack.
South Korea and major ally the United States hold regular joint military exercises, which North Korea condemns as preparations for war.
North and South Korean guards at the border.
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 USA counterpart, Ambassador Sung Kim, on Wednesday.
Darusman admits that prosecuting Kim Jong Un and other key North Korean leaders for crimes against humanity complicates efforts to search for a political resolution to the ongoing separation of the two Koreas.
He put his troops on a war footing last month after a land mine attack in the demilitarized zone prompted South Korea to resume the propaganda broadcasts. He was stabbed in the left forearm as he reflexively tried to defend himself, the 10-inch-long kitchen knife going straight through his arm. His wife Robyn gave birth to a boy in January and the proud-parents gave him a Korean middle name to mark his birthplace. Lippert was targeted because he was an accessible symbol of the US , they said. He is also a Navy reservist.
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In 2010, he received a suspended two-year prison sentence for throwing a piece of concrete at a Japanese ambassador to South Korea, according to the Yonhap news agency.
