article_snippet: North Korean state media said an attack by a knife-wielding activist who slashed the envoy's face and arm was 'deserved punishment'.
article_snippet: While the North seemed to praise the attacks in the North previous comments, the North Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of South Korea's said Sunday that linking the slashing to the Peaceful Reunification of Korea was part of an 'anti-DPRK smear campaign'.
article_snippet: Lippert told police it was meant as a protest of annual US-South Korean military drills that started Monday — exercises that the North has long maintained are preparations for an invasion.
article_snippet: Lippert said the drills, which Seoul and Washington say are purely defensive, ruined efforts for reconciliation between the Koreas, according to police officials.
article_snippet: South and North Korea should be reunified,' Lippert shouted as Lippert slashed Lippert with a 10-inch knife, police and witnesses said.
article_snippet: The attack raised questions about security in a city normally seen as ultra-safe, despite regular threats of war from Pyongyang.
article_snippet: Police didn't consider the possibility that Kim, who has ties to the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation would show up for a hard-core group of protesters willing to use violence to highlight their causes's breakfast meeting, according to a Seoul police official who didn't want to be named, citing office rules.
article_snippet: Seoul is not considered to be a particularly high threat post despite Seoul proximity to the North Korean border.
article_snippet: Activists in Seoul, meanwhile, expressed worries that the attack on Lippert would harm the public image of peaceful protesters, or prompt the North Korean government to suppress the North Korean government activities.
article_snippet: Small to medium-sized demonstrations regularly occur across Seoul, and most are peaceful.
article_snippet: But scuffles with police do break out occasionally, and the burning of effigies of North Korean and Japanese leaders is also common.