The U.S. ambassador to South Korea has shaved his slightly controversial mustache, saying it was too awkward to keep up with a coronavirus mask during South Korea’s notoriously hot summer.
Harry Harris’ facial hair had received criticism from the media and a small number of online commentators, who compared his mustache to those worn by colonial Japanese governors during the country’s brutal rule of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
Harris, a retired Navy admiral who became an ambassador in July 2018, acknowledged in January that his mustache had become “a point of fascination here.” He also said he was being criticized for his ethnicity as a Japanese American.
THE AMBASSADOR OF THE UNITED STATES OF SOUTH KOREA DEFENDS THE “OFFENSIVE” MUSTACHE, SAYS IT IS A REST OF MILITARY LIFE
“I’m glad I did this,” Harris tweeted Saturday after his visit to a barber shop in Seoul, the capital of South Korea. “For me it was keeping the ‘stache’ or losing the mask. Summer in Seoul is too hot and humid for both of us. The #COVID guidelines are important and I am a masked man!”
His embassy tweeted a video showing Harris hitting his elbows with a masked barber and gesturing to shave. He playfully rolled his eyes as he leaned back in a leather chair while the barber shaved his mustache and trimmed his eyebrows.
“Wow, I haven’t seen this face in years!” Harris exclaimed after washing his face and applying lotion.
In an interview last year with The Korea Times, an English-language newspaper, Harris said he would keep his mustache unless someone convinces him that it “looks in a way that hurts” the relationship between Washington and Seoul.
This combination of photos shows the United States ambassador to South Korea, Harry Harris, on the left, in a photo of March 4, 2020, and to the right in a photo of July 27, 2020, both taken in Seoul. , South Korea. Harris has shaved off his slightly controversial mustache, saying it was too awkward to keep while wearing a coronavirus mask in the midst of South Korea’s notoriously hot summer. His facial hair had received criticism from a small number of commentators and online media, who compared his mustache to those worn by colonial Japanese governors during the brutal rule of the Korean Peninsula country from 1910 to 1945. (Newsis, Yonhap via from AP)
The newspaper said Harris’s mustache “has been associated with the latest American image of being disrespectful and even coercive toward Korea.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Relations between South Korea and Japan sank to their lowest point in decades last year as they fought over trade problems, a history of war, and military cooperation.
South Korea’s own alliance with the United States has also weakened under the administration of President Donald Trump, who has openly complained about the costs of keeping the 28,500 US soldiers stationed in South Korea to protect against threats from South Korea. North. The allies have not signed a new cost-sharing agreement after the last one expired in late 2019.
