South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Thursday extended her consolation to the top U.S. envoy in Seoul over the bloody attack on him, the latest in a series of move by Seoul not to undermine its alliance with Washington.
Park told Mark Lippert by phone that she will pray for his quick recovery and said she will closely cooperate with the U.S. to ensure the incident will not have a negative effect on South Korea-U.S. relations, according to Park's office.
Park is visiting the United Arab Emirates, the third leg of her four-nation Mideast swing.
Lippert told Park in Korean that he "is honored to hear warm words" from her, according to Park's office.
Lippert, 42, who is known to be close to U.S. President Barack Obama, said the alliance will make great strides in peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, noting he was moved by South Koreans' consolation.
The five-minute telephone conversation came hours after a 55-year-old South Korean man slashed Lippert's face and wrist with a knife, leaving an 11-centimeter cut on his face.
The incident -- the first terrorist attack on a top U.S. envoy in Seoul -- occurred at a breakfast function in central Seoul earlier in the day, where Lippert was having breakfast before giving a lecture organized by a coalition of South Korean civic groups dedicated to forge national consensus on unification with North Korea.
Lippert was listed in stable condition after having cuts on his face and wrist stitched at Severance Hospital in Seoul.
Park also told Lippert that the act of violence can never be tolerated as she vowed to carry out a thorough probe into the incident and take necessary steps.
Park -- who received more than a dozen stitches on her face at the same hospital in 2006 after being attacked by a knife-wielding man during an election campaign in Seoul -- strongly condemned the incident as an attack on the South Korea-U.S. alliance.
In Washington, State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf strongly condemned the assault on Lippert.
South Korea was scrambling to ensure that the bloody attack on the U.S. envoy will not hurt its key alliance with the U.S.
In Seoul, National Security Adviser Kim Kwan-jin presided an emergency session of the National Security Council to handle the aftermath of the attack, the first such incident in relations between South Korea and the U.S., according to Park's office.
"We reaffirmed that the solid South Korea-U.S. alliance will not be wavering and we will closely cooperate with the U.S. for the continuous development of the alliance," Park's office said in a statement issued in Abu Dhabi after the security session.
The assailant later said the attack was intended to end joint annual Seoul-Washington military exercises, which he claims hinders efforts to reunify the two Koreas.
The annual Key Resolve and Foal Eagle military exercises that started Monday are designed to better deter threats from North Korea. The North claims the drills are a rehearsal for a nuclear war against it.
North Korea's state media hailed the attack on Lippert, saying it was "deserved punishment" for a warmonger such as the U.S. (Yonhap)
