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South Korean president visits injured US envoy and reflects on her past attack by box cutter

Associated Press
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In this photo released by the South Korean presidential house, South Korean President Park Geun-hye, right, shakes hands with U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert at Severance Hospital where he is hospitalized, in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, March 9, 2015. Injured U.S. Ambassador Lippert is recovering from the March 5 attack by a knife-wielding anti-U.S. activist. (AP Photo/South Korean Presidential House) EDITORIAL USE ONLY (The Associated Press)

In this photo released by the South Korean presidential house, South Korean President Park Geun-hye, left, talks with U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert at Severance Hospital where he is hospitalized, in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, March 9, 2015. Injured U.S. Ambassador Lippert is recovering from the March 5 attack by a knife-wielding anti-U.S. activist. (AP Photo/South Korean Presidential House) EDITORIAL USE ONLY (The Associated Press)

A woman holds a sign during a rally denouncing the attack on U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert in downtown Seoul, South Korea, Monday, March 9, 2015. South Korea's president visited injured U.S. Ambassador Mark Lippert on Monday amid an outpouring of public sympathy and support for the envoy who is recovering from an attack by a knife-wielding man. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) (The Associated Press)

South Korea's president has visited injured U.S. Ambassador Mark Lippert amid an outpouring of public sympathy and support for the envoy attacked by a knife-wielding man.

Lippert is hospitalized at Seoul's Severance Hospital where Park also received treatment in 2006 when she was knifed by a man with a box cutter during an election rally. Park was then an opposition leader.

Park's office says the president headed to the hospital shortly after she returned to South Korea from a Middle East tour on Monday.

Park was quoted as saying "my heart is aching more" because Lippert is hospitalized at the same hospital due to a similar attack.

Conservative activists and Christians have wished Lippert a quick recovery, and one well-wishing man even tried to offer dog meat to him.