Father: Seoul attacker was going for jugular

A Cincinnati family is still catching their breath after a protester in South Korea attempted to take their son's life.

The morning after Mark Lippert, U.S. ambassador to South Korea and a native of Greater Cincinnati, sustained serious lacerations to his face, his parents had the chance to speak with him on the phone.

"Mark was of the mindset that this was a bona fide attempt on his life," Jim Lippert, the ambassador's father, told The Enquirer. "He was going for the neck or the jugular.

"There were also some lacerations on [Mark's] upper left extremities that were causing some loss of movement in his ring and little finger."

However, despite 80 stitches, deep lacerations on his face and left extremities and some numbness in his fingers, Mark Lippert, is "doing well and in good spirits!"

Lippert tweeted about his positive state just hours after being slashed in South Korea's capital. He even took the time to rave to his parents on Thursday morning that his hospital accommodations in Seoul post-surgery were "very, very nice."

When Lippert's parents, Jim and Susan Lippert of Anderson Township, talked to their son from Seoul he confirmed more of the same -- that he was in "pretty good shape' even though he said he was experiencing lingering numbness in his fingers.

"We basically just talked to him about his health," Jim Lippert told The Enquirer via phone Thursday morning. "Luckily this severe facial laceration was not one that affected any muscle tissue in the face. He had 80 stitches, but there shouldn't be any permanent impairment to his facial area."

The family was relieved to hear the ambassador was doing so well, given what the assailant had actually intended.

Jim Lippert said that his son expected to make a full recovery following some physical rehabilitation. From a mental standpoint, Lippert didn't think his son had much to recover from at all.

Mark Lippert, a former NAVY intelligence officer that served alongside Navy SEALs, was already tweeting on Thursday that he was ready to "be back ASAP to advance the [United States/Republic of Korea] alliance!"

His parents first found out about the attack when they were out getting pizza. Susan Lippert got a phone call from her daughter-in-law, Robyn Lippert, Wednesday evening when Jim Lippert saw a "distressing" look spread across her face.

"I could just see and tell by the tone of the dialogue that this was serious," Jim Lippert said. "Robyn was on her way to the hospital after the attack, but said that Mark was OK and had just spoken to her on the phone."

Jim and Susan headed home after the phone call to notify their three daughters as quickly as they could, and for good reason. By the time they got home, networks were already reporting on the incident.

"One of the reasons, Mark told us, that this spread so quickly was because the event was being pretty heavily covered by the press in South Korea," Jim Lippert said.

However, the phone call from the ambassador's wife served as a great "tempering effect" for his family, thousands of miles away.

"Our settling event was that phone call," Jim Lippert said. "It's like playing cards. You play the hand you're dealt and you react to it."

Love for the Pacific Rim persists

Even after the attack on his life, Mark Lippert didn't show any signs of change towards his love for Asian culture, according to his parents.

"He didn't even offer any information about when he might be returning to the United States," Jim Lippert said. "He's very set into his life there."

Mark Lippert was born and raised in Cincinnati and a graduated from Mariemont High School in the early '90s. Lippert attended the University of Chicago, then transferred to Stanford University, where he earned both a bachelors and master's degree.

"His time at Stanford was when his love for the Pacific Rim really began," Jim Lippert said. "He learned how to speak Chinese while he was getting his masters and after a few trips to China, that's when I think his love for the region really started to grow."

Due to the nature of his service in Naval intelligence, Mark's parents didn't know much about his service in the Far East, but they knew that he had a passion for what he did.

"I would be very surprised if I saw him back in the United States any time soon," Jim Lippert said.

This comes just three weeks after Mark and Robyn Lippert welcomed the birth of their first child, James William Sejun Lippert. The child goes by his second middle name, 'Sejun,' Jim Lippert said.

"It's a Korean name," Jim Lippert said. "I can't remember what it means, but Mark wanted to give him the name because of their commitment to South Korea and how they plan to raise Sejun there."

Jim Lippert said his son had plans for a precautionary CT scan of his brain later Thursday, but that it wasn't a "great concern."

"I don't see any reason that they wouldn't discharge him really soon."