South Korea to fly home workers detained in US

South Korea will send a chartered plane to Atlanta as early as on Sept 10 to bring back workers detained during a huge immigration raid last week on a car battery plant in the US state of Georgia, a Korean Air spokesperson said on Sept 9.

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President Lee Jae Myung said Seoul would negotiate with Washington to achieve a reasonable resolution to the situation based on the spirit of their alliance, adding at a Cabinet meeting that he felt a "heavy responsibility" for the detained nationals.

A Korean Air Boeing 747-8i plane with 368 seats will fly from South Korea's Incheon to Atlanta, according to the spokesperson.

During the US immigration raid, about 300 South Koreans were among the 475 people arrested at the site of a US$4.3 billion (S$5.5 billion) project by Hyundai Motor and LG Energy Solution to build batteries for electric cars.

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun is in Washington to negotiate on issues such as seeking assurances that the detained South Koreans will be allowed re-entry into the US.

South Korean officials had kicked off the process of bringing the detained workers back home, a senior diplomatic official told reporters in Georgia after meeting the workers in custody.