TIL Desk/World/Washington/ U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday nominated Admiral Harry Harris, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, as U.S. ambassador to South Korea ahead of a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un scheduled next month but since called into question by Pyongyang. If confirmed by the Senate, Harris would fill a post that has been vacant since Trump took office in January 2017.
Harris was initially nominated by Trump to be U.S. ambassador to Australia but was asked last month by Mike Pompeo, now secretary of state, to take the post in Seoul instead, as diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis over North Korea’s nuclear weapons intensified.
His formal nomination, announced by the White House, comes days after North Korea raised doubts about whether an unprecedented June 12 summit in Singapore between Kim Jong Un and Trump would go ahead, and Pyongyang called off talks with South Korea, whose president, Moon Jae-in, is due to meet Trump at the White House on Tuesday.
Despite professed unity, Trump has often taken a harder line on North Korea than Moon, and the U.S. president has repeatedly criticized South Korea over trade while questioning the usefulness of the long-standing U.S. alliance with Seoul.
