US defends security procedures after envoy attack in S. Korea
Washington (AFP) - The United States said Friday it coordinated with South Korea to boost security for its ambassador after he was attacked in Seoul, but defended procedures that had left him with a single bodyguard.
Ambassador Mark Lippert was in stable condition and expected to stay in hospital until next Tuesday or Wednesday after an "incredibly serious" assault by a knife-wielding man, State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said.
The envoy was "in good spirits," had spoken to US President Barack Obama and was eager to return to his duties "as soon as he can," Harf added.
Korean authorities "have augmented his security with several other officers since this attack," Harf told reporters.
But she bristled when it was suggested that security for the American envoy might not have been at the appropriate level, given the tensions between Washington and Pyongyang, South Korea's provocative neighbor to the north.
"Within each diplomatic mission, the (State) Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security conducts a thorough threat analysis," Harf said, stressing that Seoul was considered a low-threat environment for American diplomats.
Lippert had been assigned one full-time bodyguard from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency -- "standard procedure for the ambassador in Seoul," she said.
Korea is conducting an investigation of the attack in coordination with officials at the US embassy in Seoul, and the State Department will study the situation to see what security changes, if any, ought to be made.
"But I don't think the notion that 'Of course we should have done something differently' is justified in this case," she said.
The suspect in custody, 55-year-old Kim Ki-Jong, is considered a lone assailant with strong nationalist views who sees the United States as a main obstacle to the reunification of the divided Korean peninsula.
Harf would not be drawn when pressed on whether the United States was beefing up its diplomatic security worldwide in the aftermath of the extremist-linked attacks on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya that killed ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, and amid heighten tensions over jihadist threats from groups like the Islamic State.
Seeking a change to the US security posture worldwide because of threats in a particular location or region is an "oversimplification of the threat picture," Harf said.
"Let's not draw broader conclusions from something. I think that would be a mistake."
