'Korea will hesitate to invest in US without better visa system'

South Korea’s president said Thursday that Korean companies will likely hesitate to make further investments in the United States unless Washington improves its visa system for their employees, as US authorities released hundreds of workers who were detained at a Georgia factory site last week.

- ASSOCIATED PRESS

In a news conference marking 100 days in office, Lee Jae Myung called for improvements in the US visa system as he spoke about the September 4 immigration raid that resulted in the arrest of more than 300 South Korean workers at a battery factory under construction at Hyundai’s sprawling auto plant in Georgia.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry later confirmed that US authorities have released the 330 detainees — 316 of them Koreans — and that they were being transported by buses to Atlanta, where they will board a charter flight scheduled to arrive in South Korea Friday afternoon.