Seoul: The government has officially designated the 2024 knife attack on President Lee Jae Myung, which occurred during his tenure as the opposition leader, as a terror case, as announced by the prime minister's office on Tuesday. This decision was made during a meeting of the National Counterterrorism Committee, led by Prime Minister Kim Min-seok.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the committee concluded that the stabbing of Lee, who was then the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), meets the criteria of an act of terrorism under the Act on Counter-Terrorism. This designation marks the first instance of a specific incident being formally classified as terrorism since the enactment of the law in 2016, thus providing a legal framework for further investigation into the case.

The attack occurred on January 2, 2024, when Lee was stabbed in the neck by a 67-year-old man during a visit to Busan, resulting in his hospitalization and subsequent surgery. The Democratic Party has claimed that law enforcement authorities, under the previous administration of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, attempted to destroy evidence to mitigate the perceived severity of the incident.

Prime Minister Kim emphasized that the attack should not have happened and committed to reviewing and strengthening the nation's counterterrorism measures to enhance public safety. The government plans to conduct an additional investigation into the attack and increase protection for major political figures during election campaigns to prevent future occurrences of similar incidents.