Before attack, US diplomat sought to charm, engage with South Koreans

Unlike previous ambassadors, Lippert made a point of walking from his official residence to the U.S. Embassy about half a mile away, stopping to greet Koreans along the way. He could often be seen on the streets of central Seoul early in the morning and late at night walking his basset hound, Grigsby.

Lippert and his wife, who enthusiastically chronicled their diplomatic life in a blog called "Lipperts in Korea," even gave their first child, who was born in Seoul in January, a Korean middle name, "as a special part of his or her history here in the Republic of Korea."

It's unclear whether the open demeanor that Lippert brought to his high-ranking role made him more vulnerable to an out-of-the-blue knife attack that left him recovering in the hospital on Thursday. The assailant, who came at the diplomat with a 10-inch knife during an event at a Seoul arts center, was described as an opponent of U.S. military involvement in South Korea with a history of violent assault.

North Korea, through its state-run news agency, called the attack "deserved punishment" for U.S. participation in military exercises on the Korean Peninsula.

Lippert, who had a security detail with him at the time of the attack, said he was in good spirits after receiving 80 stitches to the wound to his face. "Doing well and in great spirits," Lippert tweeted from the hospital.

The attack takes places as debate continues about the correct balance between keeping U.S. diplomats safe and allowing them to interact freely in the countries where they serve. That debate has intensified following the 2012 attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, which left U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans dead.

Ronald Neumann, the president of the American Academy of Diplomacy, said the pendulum had swung too far toward eliminating risk for U.S. officials, making it difficult for them to get out and develop first-hand knowledge of the countries where they're posted.

"You can't secure everybody against everything," said Neumann, a former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Algeria and Bahrain.

Yonhap News Agency quoted South Korean police officials as saying the U.S. Embassy in Seoul had not requested a security escort at Thursday's event. Following the attack, South Korean police said they would enhance security around U.S.-related facilities and personnel, providing Lippert with four police guards, and his wife with three.

The assault came not long after Lippert took up the position in Seoul, which culminated over a decade of work as a policy staffer and Washington insider.

An Ohio native, Lippert, 42, made his way into politics as an aide to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and to former senator Thomas Daschle. In 2005, he joined the office of then-Sen. Barack Obama.

For a senator trying to get up to speed on foreign affairs, Lippert, who earned a master's degree in international policy studies at Stanford University and studied Mandarin in Beijing, proved a valuable adviser. He later advised Obama's 2008 campaign.

A Navy reservist, Lippert returned to active duty from 2007 to 2008 and served as an intelligence officer in Iraq. When he left, Lippert helped recruit Denis McDonough, a former Hill colleague, to replace him on the campaign. McDonough is now the White House chief of staff.

When Obama took office, he installed Lippert and McDonough into high-level positions at the National Security Council, where the youthful political appointees reportedly clashed with then-National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones, according to an account in Bob Woodward's "Obama Wars." Jones considered them "major obstacles to developing and deciding on coherent national security policy," Woodward wrote, and he accused Lippert of leaking unflattering information about him to the press.

Derek Chollet, a former senior Pentagon official who is a longtime friend of Lippert's, said reports of White House drama were "probably more perception" than reality.

He added: "Mark is an intense guy. He moves fast, thinks fast, works it very hard, is up at all hours. He's relentless, and that's why he's so good."

Obama later nominated Lippert as assistant secretary of defense for Asia. His confirmation hearing was combative, as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., aggressively questioned Lippert's opposition to the U.S. military surge in Iraq and his alleged undermining of Jones.

McCain "had to be convinced that Lippert was not just an empty suit," said Frank Januzzi, who served as the Asian affairs director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "The good news is that Lippert is not just a quick study but a smart guy."

Ultimately, Lippert was confirmed and was later selected as chief of staff to former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

A senior defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a former colleague, said that Lippert was known for his inclusive style as chief of staff, encouraging a range of officials to attend meetings and present their views to Hagel -- not the norm in Washington.

Lippert's arrival in Seoul came as the Obama administration tries to shift its foreign policy toward greater engagement with Asia. Although he did not have the star power of a Caroline Kennedy, the ambassador to Japan, Lippert's arrival in South Korea made sense because "having somebody close personally to the president sent an important message to South Korea that the pivot to Asia was important," said a former colleague of Lippert's who was not authorized to speak on the record in his current job.

South Koreans, who count the United States as their closest ally, reacted in horror to the attack on Thursday.

President Park Geun-hye, who had her own face slashed while campaigning in 2006, said the incident was "not only a physical attack on the U.S. ambassador in South Korea but also an attack on the Korea-U.S. alliance." Both Presidents Obama and Park called Lippert following the attack.

Januzzi said that said Lippert's openness had been a hallmark of his tenure so far and he hoped that officials would not "create a bubble around him" as a result of the attack.