Harris gets prelim OK for ambassador

WASHINGTON – The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, ahead of a full Senate vote expected in early July, unanimously approved President Trump's pick for ambassador to South Korea, paving the way for his confirmation. At his confirmation hearing earlier in June, retired Nay Adm. Harry Harris Jr. expressed support for the President’s decision to suspend joint military exercises with South Korea while the U.S. negotiates the dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Harris recently retired from duty as chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet in Hawaii. The retired flag officer led the Pacific Command for three years until May, with oversight of more than 28,500 personnel under his direction with U.S. Forces Korea. (Yonhap News Agency-South Korea 06/26/18) Gulf Coast Note: Harris was born in Japan to a Japanese mother and an American Navy-father, and later graduated from Washington High School in Pensacola, Fla.