A man suspected of posting letters on the White House website threatening to kill the top U.S. envoy to Seoul and rape the second daughter of U.S. President Barack Obama has been indicted on charges of intimidation, prosecutors said Wednesday.
The 32-year-old man, identified only by his surname Lee, is suspected of posting a letter titled "Declaration Terror to Mr. President Obama" on July 8 on "Contact the White House," a page for civil petitions.
In the letter, Lee said that he would kill U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert, adding that "my assassinator's mind is too weak to cut the ambassador's artery perfectly," referring to an attack on the envoy earlier this year.
Lippert was attacked with a knife at a breakfast function in Seoul on March 5, which left him with deep gashes on his face and arm that needed more than 80 stitches.
Kim Ki-jong, the suspected attacker, is standing trial on charges of violence against a foreign envoy, attempted murder, business obstruction and sympathizing with North Korea in violation of the National Security Law.
Lee threatened to "amputate all your (Obama's) political comrades slowly but surely one by one, until the U.S. army eliminates bio-chemical weapons in Korean Peninsular Mother Land."
He was also found to have posted another letter on the previous day, July 7, threatening to rape Sasha Obama, the second daughter of President Obama.
After receiving a request for an investigation from the White House, police arrested the man at his home in Seoul on July 14.
On Lee's confiscated laptop, records of access to the homepage were found, as well as a draft of the letter and a screen capture taken as he allegedly wrote the letter on the website, police said.
Lee denies that he wrote the letter.
Police concluded that Lee lived in seclusion and spent most of his time surfing the Internet, as he failed to find a job after graduating from university. (Yonhap)
