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US envoy attacker gets additional 18 months for assaulting prison staff

March 23, 2016

SEOUL (Yonhap) — A local court on Wednesday sentenced the 56-year-old man, who attacked the top U.S. envoy to South Korea last year, to an additional 18 months in prison for assaulting prison staff.

The Seoul Central District Court found Kim Ki-jong guilty of hitting a prison officer and a surgeon when he was denied the right to go to a hospital for his ankle injury. The staff rejected Kim’s request as the injury was treatable in jail, prosecutors said.

Kim is currently serving a prison term for attacking U.S. Ambassador Mark Lippert with a knife at a function in Seoul in March last year.

“The defendant denies the allegations and only emphasizes the legitimacy of his (action), without showing any remorse,” the court said.

In September, the same court sentenced the 56-year-old to 12 years in prison on a string of charges, including attempted murder.

The attack left Lippert with deep gashes that required more than 80 stitches.

The case is pending at a higher court in Seoul, following the prosecutors’ appeal.

A suspect, identified by police as 55-year-old Kim Ki-jong, is carried on a stretcher off an ambulance as he arrives at a hospital in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, March 5, 2015. Lippert was in stable condition after a man screaming demands for a unified North and South Korea slashed him on the face and wrist with a knife, South Korean police and U.S. officials said Thursday.(AP Photo/Yonhap, Han Jong-chan)

FILE — A suspect, identified by police as 55-year-old Kim Ki-jong, is carried on a stretcher off an ambulance as he arrives at a hospital in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, March 5, 2015. Lippert was in stable condition after a man screaming demands for a unified North and South Korea slashed him on the face and wrist with a knife, South Korean police and U.S. officials said Thursday.(AP Photo/Yonhap, Han Jong-chan)