SEOUL – South Korea’s foreign minister departed for Washington yesterday for further negotiations following the detention of hundreds of South Koreans in an immigration raid.

US immigration officials arrested some 475 individuals, including South Korean workers, during the raid Thursday at a Hyundai-LG battery plant being built in the southern state of Georgia.

Officials in the United States called it the largest such raid on a single site carried out so far under President Donald Trump’s nationwide anti-immigration crackdown.

“The fact that more than 300 of our citizens are being detained is a grave situation,” said Foreign Minister Cho Hyun.

“I will do my utmost during my visit to the United States to resolve this quickly so that they can return home in good health,” said Cho.

“At the same time, we will also work with the US side on longer-term structural changes to ensure such problems do not arise again,” he added.

Seoul said on Sunday that a deal to release and repatriate the detained workers had been “concluded” with the United States, and that a chartered plane would fly them home once administrative procedures were complete.

Cho told an emergency parliamentary hearing on Monday that the government expects to prevent workers from being hit with a five-year entry ban to the United States, adding that negotiations were proceeding “well.”

He also said “a broad agreement has been reached” to ensure workers would not face further disadvantages when entering the United States, though final confirmation was pending.

Cho said there had been some local discontent, noting that LG itself explained it could not hire American workers until the plant was completed, a situation that “seems to have caused some dissatisfaction locally”.

The foreign minister also said he would meet Secretary of State Marco Rubio during his trip. – Nampa/AFP