Police raid National Assembly, other offices in probe into 2024 knife attack on Lee

▲ This file photo, taken Jan. 26, 2026, shows a signboard of a task force investigating the 2024 knife attack on President Lee Jae Myung headquartered in the southeastern city of Busan. (Yonhap)

police raid-terror probe

Police raid National Assembly, other offices in probe into 2024 knife attack on Lee

SEOUL, Feb. 12 (Yonhap) -- Police raided the National Assembly, the intelligence agency and other offices Thursday as part of an investigation connected to a knife attack on President Lee Jae Myung in 2024 when he was the opposition leader.

A police investigation team searched the parliamentary intelligence committee, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and the National Counter Terrorism Center to secure evidence.

The investigation is related to the knife attack Lee sustained during a visit to the southeastern city of Busan on Jan. 2, 2024, while he was leader of the Democratic Party.

Lee sustained a stab wound to the neck from a 67-year-old man who approached him posing as a supporter, leaving him hospitalized and requiring surgery.

Last month, the government designated the attack as a terrorism case during a meeting of the National Counterterrorism Committee and subsequently launched a task force to revisit the stabbing.

On Thursday, three investigators were sent to the National Assembly to seize what sources described as classified minutes of the intelligence committee concerning the knife attacker but left empty-handed following a 1 1/2-hour raid, officials said.

They were reportedly looking for an undisclosed document containing the spy agency's findings that the knife attack had been influenced by an ultra-right-wing YouTuber.

Following the initial investigation, the Busan Metropolitan Police had concluded that the crime was committed by the man alone, without an accomplice or mastermind. The attacker was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The initial investigation, conducted under the previous Yoon Suk Yeol government, has drawn criticism from the now ruling bloc, which claims the NIS and the counterterrorism center tried to downplay the case by removing on-site evidence and failing to designate it as a terrorism case.

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