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After North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in April 2016

US President Donald Trump officially nominated Adm. Harry Harris, commander of the US Pacific Command, to fill the seat of US ambassador to South Korea, which has been vacant for nearly 16 months, the White House announced on May 18.

With his agrément procedures reportedly finished [with the South Korean government], Harris appears set to take over as soon as Senate ratification procedures are complete.

In a press release that day, the White House described Harris as a “highly decorated, combat proven Naval officer with extensive knowledge, leadership, and geopolitical expertise in the Indo-Pacific region.”

“During his 40-year career, he served in every geographic combatant command region,” it noted.

The position of US ambassador to South Korea has sat empty since Barack Obama administration appointee Mark Lippert departed on Jan. 20 of last year. Marc Knapper, deputy chief of mission, has been serving as chargé d’affaires ad interim in the meantime.

Trump previously nominated Harris in February to serve as ambassador to Australia, but switched the nomination to South Korea just before his Senate confirmation hearing last month at the suggestion of then-Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director Mike Pompeo after the latter was nominated as Secretary of State.

The Washington Post and other US news outlets reported on May 24 that Pompeo had come up with the plan due to the urgency of the upcoming North Korea-US summit and other issues.

Harris, who has a Japanese mother and a father who served as a Navy chief petty officer at the US 7th Fleet home port in Osaka, is known to lean conservative. After serving with the Navy as Pacific Fleet Commander, he became commander of the Pacific Command in 2015, which placed him in command of the US Forces Korea headquarters.

Harris has historically adopted a hardline stance on North Korea and China. During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing last month, he argued that the North Korean regime intended to unify the Korean Peninsula under a communist government with its nuclear weapons; in 2015, he denounced China as building a “great wall of sand” with its building of artificial islands in the South China Sea.

Some observers predicted that while Harris’s hardline stance in the past has been consistent with his role as Pacific Command chief responsible for security, his attitude must conform more to a diplomatic role as a civilian ambassador. Harris is also reported to be close with figures in the South Korean government. A source well acquainted with him described him as someone who “speaks frankly and directly.”

By Yi Yong-in, Washington correspondent

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