South Korean workers return home after Hyundai raid ordeal in US
In the wake of the Georgia operation, a trade union group demanded an apology from Trump and urged Seoul to halt US investment plans
South Korean workers accounted for most of the 475 people arrested at a Hyundai-LG battery factory site in the state of Georgia, triggering a delicate effort to resolve the thorny situation between close allies.
The Korean Air Boeing 747-8I, with more than 310 South Koreans on board, departed from Atlanta and touched down on the runway at South Korea’s main gateway in Incheon.
TV footage showed workers, some wearing masks, passing an arrival hall, with senior officials including presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik clapping hands. One hugged Kang.
“Everything at Atlanta went smoothly,” a foreign ministry official said on Friday.
Experts say most of the detained South Korean workers were likely to have been on visas that do not permit hands-on construction work.
He added that Seoul was negotiating with Washington “to ensure that visa issuance for investment-related purposes operates normally”.
In the wake of the raid, Washington and Seoul have agreed to discuss establishing a new visa category for South Koreans, Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said.
Asia’s fourth-largest economy maintains multiple plants in the United States and has heeded Washington’s push to onshore manufacturing and boost investment in America.
At Incheon airport, people were seen holding a satirical placard depicting President Trump in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement uniform, wearing a gun, alongside the words, “We’re friends, aren’t we?”
One older man, who was not related to the workers, also staged a protest against the raid, holding a picket that read: “You told us to invest, only to arrest us! Is this how you treat an ally?”
At the Hyundai factory site, construction will now be set back due to labour shortages, CEO Jose Munoz said.
“This is going to give us minimum two to three months’ delay, because now all these people want to get back,” he said.
“Then you need to see how can you fill those positions. And for the most part, those people are not in the US.”
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), one of the country’s largest umbrella union groups, called for an apology from Trump and for Seoul to halt US investment plans.
“The Trump administration’s excessive mass arrests and detentions were a clear violation of human rights,” it said in a statement.
“The KCTU stands in full solidarity with the workers returning today and strongly urges President Trump to issue an official apology and calls for [South Korea’s] suspension of investments in the US.”
LG Energy Solution – which said 47 of its employees were arrested, along with about 250 people working for its contractor – thanked the Seoul government for its support.
Seoul sent a task force and flew in top officials to negotiate, with a focus on ensuring that workers would not suffer future repercussions should they seek to re-enter the US.
“We are especially grateful for their exceptional efforts … for their meticulous attention to addressing various concerns, including ensuring no disadvantages upon re-entry,” the firm said in a statement.
The raid came less than a month after Trump welcomed Lee to the White House.
The site of the raid is a US$4.3 billion venture to build a battery cell manufacturing facility in Georgia.
Many South Korean companies bring their own workforce during project development periods, with industry sources saying it is common practice to use visa workarounds to avoid project delays.
LG said it remained committed to its US projects, adding that it was also working to minimise “any business impact resulting from this incident”.