South Korean ruling party MP 'attacked' in street : Yonhap


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People watch a television screen showing a news broadcast with a closed-circuit television footage of the scene where South Korean ruling People Power Party's lawmaker Bae Hyun-jin being assaulted in Gangnam district, at a railway station in Seoul on January 25, 2024. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP)

SEOUL, South Korea– A South Korean ruling party lawmaker was "attacked" on a street in Seoul's upscale Gangnam district on Thursday by an unidentified assailant, Yonhap news agency reported.

Bae Hyun-jin, 40, was struck with an "object believed to be a blunt instrument" and was taken to hospital, the report said, adding her condition was "not life threatening".

The attack comes just about a month after the country's opposition party leader Lee Jae-myung was stabbed in the neck while talking to reporters in the port city of Busan.

He underwent a surgery and returned to work on January 17.

Bae, a former news anchor, was President Yoon Suk Yeol's spokeswoman when he was the president-elect.

Several high-profile South Korean politicians have been attacked in public in recent years.

Song Young-gil, who led the Democratic Party before Lee, was struck in the head with a blunt object in 2022.

In 2006, Park Geun-hye, then leader of the conservative party who later became president, was assaulted with a knife at a rally.