Knife Attacker Hoped to End South Korean’s Presidential Bid, Police Say

The man who stabbed the main opposition leader of South Korea in the neck last week wanted to kill him so that he would never become president, the police said, in an alarming escalation of political polarization.

A 66-year-old man who was arrested after the attack was handed over to prosecutors on Wednesday to be formally indicted on a charge of attempted murder. The South Korean police did not release his name, but he was identified by local news media by his surname, Kim.

The man, the police said, had planned to kill Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the liberal Democratic Party, for months, even preparing an eight-page manifesto and asking a friend to release it to relatives and the news media after the attack.

On Wednesday, Mr. Lee, 59, was released from a hospital in Seoul, the capital, where he had been recovering from surgery to a jugular vein that was damaged in the attack.

The attack, the worst against a South Korean politician in nearly two decades, drew attention to the political polarization and mutual hostility between conservative and liberal South Koreans that appeared to be​ deepening ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for April. Mr. Lee lost the presidential election in 2022 to Yoon Suk Yeol, a conservative, by a razor-thin margin, and he hopes to run again in 2027.

Facing supporters and TV cameras as he left Seoul National University Hospital, Mr. Lee called for “an end to warlike politics where one side is not satisfied until it kills the other side.”

“I hope that this incident, which has shocked everyone, will be a milestone toward ending politics of hatred and confrontation and restoring politics of mutual respect and coexistence,” he said.

The suspect was “driven by his personal political