Thread by @NoonInKorea

Former PACOM commander Admiral Harry Harris got his Senate approval and is expected to assume the office US Ambassador to SK sometime in July. This would put an end to a 17-mo gap of of having no US ambassador in SK since Mark Lippert went home in Jan 2017
voakorea.com/a/4455615.html

Harris is not a diplomat nor academic: he's the first career military officer to become ambassador to SK. He was originally tapped for a post in Oz but agreed to become SK ambassador at Pompeo's request. The Trump admin wants to fill the position ASAP now. yonhapnews.co.kr/bulletin/2018/…

Per Yohap, Harris is "adept at military diplomacy," whatever that means. At the Senate hearing held on June 14, he stressed the importance of the US-RoK alliance but felt stopping joint military exercises may be necessary to check if KJU is serious about denuclearization

What Yonhap means is Harris knows "gunboat diplomacy" given his background: have the carriers and strike groups close enough to the shores, then send the pointy-headed diplomats in to shuffle papers. Harris recently said NK still remains "a nuclear threat"
cnn.com/2018/06/14/pol…

Harris is also known for his belief that KJU develops nukes & missiles not for regime preservation but to reunify the Korean peninsula under a "communist regime" -- what NK frequently calls achieving "final victory." He said so at a House hearing in Feb

To put it more accurately, Harris thinks KJU is developing nukes ① for regime security (deterrence); ② to be respected (legitimacy); and ③ to reunify the Korean Peninsula under his leadership (Juche Joseon's Final Victory).
namu.wiki/w/%ED%95%B4%EB…

So that qualifies him as a hardliner. Is that why Pompeo want him in SK? Prolly also because he sees NK from the larger perspective of a rising China: "NK remains the most imminent threat but China's dream of hegemony is our biggest long-term challenge"
cnn.com/2018/05/30/pol…

Harris wasn't the one who issued warning that the US can "blow apart" China's man-made islands. But he's the one who keeps warning that China could soon reach Asian hegemony, reducing US influence and even compromising her safe passage in the Indo-Pacific
fox43.com/2018/06/01/us-…