The US ambassador to South Korea has been slashed on the face and wrist by a knife-wielding attacker shouting for unification of the divided peninsula.
President Barack Obama called his former aide Mark Lippert to wish him a swift recovery after the assault during a breakfast speech in Seoul.
The 42-year-old envoy was taken to hospital for treatment but his injuries were not life-threatening.
A State Department spokeswoman said: "We strongly condemn this act of violence."
Footage taken in aftermath of the attack, showed the ambassador being rushed out of the building holding one hand to his bleeding right cheek, with his other hand smeared with blood.
Security staff and police officers were seen jumping on the ambassador's assailant who was armed with a 10-inch blade.
Police have identified the attacker as 55-year-old Kim Ki-Jong, who has a previous conviction for assaulting the Japanese ambassador to Seoul in 2010.
District police chief Yoon Myung-Soon said: "We have detained him and are investigating the cause of the attack and other circumstances."
A spokesman for the Korea Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation, which hosted the event, apologised for the lack of security.
Mr Lippert, a long-time adviser to President Obama and former US assistant secretary of defense for Asian affairs, only took up his post in South Korea last October.
Mr Lippert had also previously served as a intelligence officer for naval special operations, and won a Bronze Star Medal following a tour in Iraq.
South and North Korea have been divided since the 1950-53 Korean War and are still technically at war because the fighting ended in a truce.
The US and South Korea launched annual joint military exercises this week leading to heightened tensions with the communist North.
Pyongyang claims they are rehearsals for an invasion, while South Korea and the US argue they are purely defensive.
America has almost 30,000 troops permanently stationed in the South.
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