A Seoul court Friday handed down a 12-year-prison term to the 55-year-old man who attacked the top U.S. envoy to South Korea earlier this year, but acquitted him of charges of violating the National Security Law, according to Yonhap News Agency.

The Seoul Central District Court found Kim Ki-jong, who was accused of attacking Amb. Mark Lippert with a knife at a breakfast function in Seoul on March 5, guilty of attempted murder, violence against a foreign envoy and business obstruction.

The attack left the ambassador with deep gashes on his face and arm that needed more than 80 stitches.

"Kim seems to have had a strong will to attack the victim, choosing a knife to repeatedly slash the part of the body that had a direct connection with life," Judge Kim Dong-ah said.

The court, however, acquitted Kim of charges of violating the country's anti-North Korea law which prohibits citizens from supporting or praising the North.

After the sentence was delivered, prosecutors said they will appeal the acquittal on the breach of National Security Law.

Source: MENA