US Vice President Kamala Harris met President Moon Jae-in in Washington DC on the 21st (local time) and shook hands.
While criticism has been raised for being rude to the head of the other country, saying that it was the act of wiping hands after shaking hands, there were also refutations that it was not something that would be a problem as a natural behavior without any intention.
President Moon, who visited the United States for the ROK-US summit, met with Vice President Harris in the event room of the Eisenhower administration building next morning.
President Moon spoke in front of Vice President Harris and reporters in front of the podium in the event room.
President Moon said, "I was very impressed with the pearl necklace campaign that many people participated in on social media at the time of the vice president's inauguration. I think it was love and support for the vice president, who took the lead in overcoming invisible discrimination and glass ceilings."
Hearing this, Vice President Harris laughed out loud.
"My hometown is California, where the most Korean overseas Koreans live," said Vice President Harris. "Across the United States, Korean-Americans are active as leaders of all walks of life, including medicine, academia, entertainment, economy, and politics." I did.
President Moon and Vice President Harris finished speaking in both interviews and moved to the balcony attached to the event room to chat and take a commemorative photo.
The controversy among American netizens took place over the scene where President Moon and Vice President Harris shook hands shortly after speaking.
With a smile, Vice President Harris, who first reached out, shook hands, putting his right hand over the pocket under the jacket and gently stroked it down.
Vice President Harris was turning to move at the time and was still smiling wide.
Depending on the person, it may appear as if they are wiping their hands on their clothes, or it could be regarded as a habitual grooming behavior.
Regarding this, some netizens pointed out through Twitter such as "rude and racist", "very embarrassing behavior", "not wanting to shake hands", and "is Korea no longer an ally".
One netizen also wrote, "You can't wipe the virus off your pants."
In the US, conservative Fox News, critical of the current US government, reported that'Harris wiped his hand after greeting the South Korean president and faced backlash on Twitter.'
However, in the video posted on YouTube, "It's a natural behavior that comes out after shaking hands, so it's not a serious thing", "I sometimes wiped my hands on my sleeves before shaking hands." It was a tense situation. That's all there is," and a number of rebuttal comments that it was insignificant.