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US Ambassador to South Korea Harry Harris’ Twitter account

US Ambassador Harry Harris disclosed the delivery of the Global Hawk (RQ-4), a US surveillance asset, to the South Korean military and shared a photograph of it despite efforts by South Korean military officials to dissuade him, it has been learned. Observers criticized his unilateral decision to disclose information about his host country’s military in defiance of its wishes as overstepping his authority as a diplomatic representative.

According to accounts from various military sources on Apr. 20, the US Embassy in South Korea notified the South Korean Ministry of National Defense (MND) around two weeks ago that it planned to post a congratulatory message on social media once the Global Hawk arrives in South Korea next week. The MND reportedly responded by communicating its objections to such a post, maintaining that doing so would be inappropriate because information about the movements of strategic assets like the Global Hawk are classified as military secrets.

But on the afternoon of Apr. 19, Harris posted a Twitter message reading, “Congratulations to the US-ROK Security Cooperation teams on delivering Global Hawk to the ROK this week. A great day for ROKAF and the ironclad #USROKAlliance,” along with a photograph of an actual Global Hawk emblazoned with the words “Republic of Korea Air Force.”

Historically, military authorities have insisted on not disclosing information about the arrival of surveillance assets and other weaponry introduced from the US and elsewhere, or sharing information about the time of their arrival or photographs, which they consider to be confidential. Military authorities initially did not share information about the arrival of the first Global Hawk in December of last year, finally admitting its delivery only when images of its arrival were captured by a journalist.

Many in and around the military viewed Harris’s tweet as “irregular.”

“The Global Hawk is being introduced to South Korea through Foreign Military Sales (FMS) procedures supervised by the US government, but it is unquestionably a surveillance asset of the South Korean Air Force, not the US military,” said one military official.

“As a former commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, Ambassador Harris may be quite interested in military issues, but it crosses a line for him to unilaterally disclose South Korean military information,” the official continued.

When asked about the factors behind Harris’s decision to post the information, the US Embassy said it had nothing to comment beyond what was in the tweet.

By Noh Ji-won, staff reporter

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