Foreign Minister Cho Hyun says he is ‘deeply concerned’ over detention of 300 South Koreans, while opposition calls it a ‘grave matter’.Published On 6 Sep 20256 Sep 2025South Korean President Lee Jae-myung has ordered all-out efforts to respond to the arrests of hundreds of the country’s citizens in an immigration raid on a Hyundai Motor-LG car battery factory in the United States.Thursday’s arrest of some 475 workers – more than 300 of them South Korean nationals – at the plant near Savannah in the southern US state of Georgia was the largest single-site enforcement operation carried out by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an arm of the US Department of Homeland Security.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listSouth Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun on Saturday said President Lee has instructed officials to swiftly resolve the matter, stressing that the rights and interests of South Korean nationals and the business operations of South Korean companies investing in the US “must not be infringed upon”, South Korea’s official Yonhap news agency said in a report.Cho said the government has set up a team to respond to the arrest of more than 300 Koreans at the facility, under construction in the southern state of Georgia, and that he may go to Washington, DC, to meet with officials if needed.“We are deeply concerned and feel a heavy sense of responsibility over the arrests of our nationals,” Cho was quoted by Yonhap before an emergency meeting on Saturday to tackle the incident.“We will discuss sending a senior Foreign Ministry official to the site without delay, and, if necessary, I will personally travel to Washington to hold consultations with the US administration,” …
