SEOUL: A South Korean ruling party lawmaker was wounded after she was struck on the head by an unidentified assailant on Thursday, the MP’s office and her party said.

Bae Hyun-jin, 40, was hospitalised at Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital in Seoul and her condition was not life-threatening, the medical institution said.

The lawmaker was bleeding before being transferred to the hospital in the South Korean capital, Seoul’s Yonhap news agency reported, adding she was struck on the back of her head with a rock.

The attack comes just weeks after opposition party leader Lee Jae-myung was stabbed in the neck while talking to reporters in the port city of Busan. South Korea is gearing up for a crucial election on April 10, in which President Yoon Suk Yeol’s conservative party aims to regain a parliamentary majority for the first time since 2016.

Local broadcaster SBS aired CCTV footage released by Bae’s office, which showed the assailant following the lawmaker into a building and suddenly striking her head with an object. In the footage, he continues to attack her even after she falls to the ground. Park Seok-gyu, a doctor at the Seoul hospital where Bae was being treated, said medical staff used a stapler to perform two sutures to treat a one-centimetre scalp injury.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2024