US ambassador's moustache outrages South Koreans

US ambassador to South Korea Harry Harris has sparked diplomatic tension on the Korean peninsula with his moustache. Harris, a former navy admiral born to a Japanese mother and an American veteran, was slammed for insulting his Korean hosts with his contentious grooming choices which remind South Koreans of the Japanese colonial days. 

Japan's imperial rule of 1910-1945 over the Korean peninsula continues to be a source of resentment among South Korean. Diplomatic relations between the two Asian neighbours took a hit last year owing to disputes in connection with their bitter wartime history. 

Moustache Row 

Social media users in South Korean criticised Harris' appearance drawing parallels with colonial Japanese governors-general who had sported similar moustaches. However, the 63-year-old Japanese-origin American diplomat stated that he was being singled out because of his background. 

Harris, while speaking to the local media, said he had a clean shave for his 40-year naval career but decided to sport a moustache for his diplomatic career. 

“I wanted to make a break between my life as a military officer and my new life as a diplomat,” Harris said last month, as per media reports.

“I tried to get taller, but I couldn’t grow any taller, and so I tried to get younger, but I couldn’t get younger. But I could grow a moustache, so I did that,” the US ambassador had mockingly added. 

"Not the Japanese-American ambassador"

Harris told reporters on Thursday that it was his duty to present and defend US policies and reiterated that he was the American ambassador to Seoul and "not the Japanese-American ambassador".

Harris reportedly pointed out that Korean independence leaders sported moustaches as well but the netizens don't seem to remember the fact. His moustache, he added, was a matter of personal choice and his critics were "cherry-picking history."

He added that while he understood the historical background to the present-day contentions between Japan and South Korea, he will not play down his ethnicity in response to racist hatred on social media. Harris said, “to take that history and put it on me simply because an accident of birth I think is a mistake.”