SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea’s opposition leader Park Geun-hye, perhaps the most prominent woman in the country, was slashed in the face Saturday night at a crowded rally in support of a candidate in upcoming elections for Seoul mayor.

Police arrested a man with a box cutter and an accomplice, both of whom were said to be intoxicated.

The 54-year-old Park received emergency surgery to close a four-inch long wound from her ear to her jawline.

She was reported to be in good condition.

The attack outside a department store in the middle of Seoul was stunning in South Korea, a country that had experienced much political violence up to the 1980s, but not in recent years.

Park is the daughter of the late dictator Park Chung-hee, who was assassinated by his own intelligence chief in 1979. Five years earlier, her mother – South Korea’s first lady – had been gunned down as well by an assassin.

“Korean politics used to be very nasty in the old days, but not now. What you usually see in the way of political violence is staged, such as students throwing pebbles at rallies. You don’t have willful brutality like women being slashed with box cutters,” said Michael Breen, a longtime Korea analyst and author of the book, “The Koreans.”

It was unclear whether the attack was premeditated, police said.