DPRK calls attack on U.S. ambassador to S. Korea "deserved punishment"

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Thursday called the razor-wielding attack on the U.S. ambassador to South Korea earlier in the day a "deserved punishment", the official KCNA news agency reported.

"The recent case amid mounting anti-Americanism reflects the mindset of South Korean people censuring the U.S. for bringing the danger of a war to the Korean Peninsula through the madcap saber-rattling," the report said.

U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert was injured on Thursday morning in a knife-wielding attack by a South Korean male assailant who shouted opposition to the ongoing U.S.-South Korea joint annual war games.

Lippert, who took office last year as the youngest envoy for his post, was slashed in his cheek and hand by a knife blade at about 7:40 a.m. local time (2240 GMT Wednesday) when he was preparing for a lecture at a venue in Sejong Cultural Center in central Seoul.

The White House has condemned the attack, saying President Barack Obama has called Lippert and wished him a speedy recovery. It was the first attack against a U.S. ambassador to South Korea.

Pyongyang on Monday blasted the U.S.-S.Korea joint annual military drills that run from March 2 to April 24, calling the exercises codenamed "Key Resolve" and "Foal Eagle" "intolerable aggression moves."

On the same day, an unnamed spokesman for the DPRK's General Staff of the Korean People's Army issued a statement, threatening to retaliate the military exercises with the "toughest measures" and saying the DPRK's armed forces "are fully ready" to strike their designated targets. Endit