SEOUL (dpa-AFX) - South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has said that companies will be 'very hesitant' about investing in the United States in the wake of the arrest of hundreds of South Koreans who were working at a car battery plant construction site in Georgia last week.
The facility is being built by South Korean multinational conglomerate LG and South Korean automobile manufacturing giant Hyundai.
ICE special agents, in collaboration with federal, state and local law enforcement officials, arrested 475 immigrant workers - most of them South Korean nationals - saying that they were executing a federal search warrant as part of 'an active, ongoing criminal investigation'.
South Korean foreign minister Cho Hyun went to the United States Monday to help secure the release of the Korean workers and return them home.
More than 300 detainees have reportedly been released and are scheduled to return to their home country Friday.
After meeting Cho Hyun, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States welcomes South Korean investment into the country and stated his interest in deepening cooperation on this front.
'Secretary Rubio and Foreign Minister Cho discussed advancing the U.S.-ROK Alliance through a forward-looking agenda that strengthens deterrence in the Indo-Pacific, expands equitable defense burden sharing, revitalizes American manufacturing through ROK investment in shipbuilding and other strategic sectors, and promotes a fair and reciprocal trade partnership,' says a statement issued by the State Department.
But the South Korean President sounded a different tone while speaking at a news conference Thursday.
'The situation is extremely bewildering,' according to Lee. He noted that it is common practice for South Korean companies to deploy workers to help the construction of their factories abroad.
'If that's no longer allowed, establishing manufacturing facilities in the US will only become more difficult... making companies question whether it's worth doing at all,' he told reporters.
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