Industry Minister on Georgia Detention Incident: "Strongly Expressed Regret to U.S. Commerce Secretary"

On September 8, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Kim Jungkwan stated regarding the arrest and detention of Korean workers in the United States, "I directly and strongly expressed my regret to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick."

Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Kim Jung-kwan attending the general meeting. Photo by Yonhap News

Minister Kim attended the general meeting of the National Assembly's Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs and Startups Committee that day and said, "I sincerely apologize and feel deeply sorry for the hardships faced by the families involved."

Previously, on September 4 (local time), more than 300 Korean workers were detained at the construction sites of Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution battery plants in Georgia during a large-scale crackdown by U.S. immigration authorities.

Minister Kim said, "I made it clear to Secretary Lutnick that while you are asking us to invest, it is unreasonable to take such a conservative stance on visa issues," and added, "Today, I was also briefed that President Trump mentioned the matter and said he would seek reasonable solutions regarding these issues."

He further stated, "It is true that we have raised issues regarding our visa situation for several years in relation to preventing a recurrence," but also pointed out, "It is also a fact that the recent trend in the United States is to further reduce and tighten foreign visas."

Minister Kim said, "Regrettably, I feel sorry that we should have resolved the U.S. visa issue in advance, but there seem to have been reasons why we could not and have come to this point," and added, "Since U.S. visa enforcement has become much stricter recently, we called all companies in May and July to warn them to be cautious, but it seems those measures were not effective."

He continued, "Until now, policies have focused on attracting foreign investment into Korea, but in fact, there have been policy gaps regarding overseas investment by Korean companies," and added, "The world has changed, so we will take these matters into account and come up with institutional improvement measures."