ICE raid strains South Korea ties

Seoul secures release of Hyundai workers in U.S., but crackdown spurs trade concerns.

- MAX KIM

HYUNDAI workers wait for agents to shackle their legs Thursday in Ellabell, Ga.

South Korea says the Trump administration has agreed to release the hundreds of Koreans caught last week in the largest U.S. immigration raid.

South Korean presidential chief of staff, Kang Hoon-sik, said Sunday that negotiators were finalizing talks with U.S. officials to secure the release of the work ers arrested in a federal immigration crackdown at a factory that South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solution and auto company Hyundai are building in Georgia.

The workers could return home on a chartered flight as early as this week, he said.

“The South Korean government will remain on guard and stay on the situation with responsibility until our citizens have safely returned home,” Kang said at a meeting with senior legislators and Cabinet officials.

On Thursday, federal agents arrested 475 people at the factory site in Ellabell, Ga. More than 300 of those detained were South Korean citizens employed by LG and its subcontractors.

The crackdown came as South Korea’s biggest companies have pledged billions of dollars in new investment to boost their manufacturing operations in the U.S. as part of a trade deal reached by President Trump and his South Korean counterpart, Lee Jae Myung, this year.

Trump announced in late July that tariffs on most imports from South Korea would be only 15% after South Korea agreed to invest $350 billion in key U.S. industries and purchase $100 billion worth of its liquefied natural gas.