The Korean/American commentator above points out the importance of saving face and making amends and apologies in Asian culture, and asks if Georgia Governor Kemp, soon to visit Korea, will be making abject apologies for the recent catastrophic ICE raid at a Georgia construction site, where Hyundai engineers were advising and training staff at an EV battery factory.
A lot of interesting perspectives from Korean news reports on American current events in the video above.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is seeking a meeting with Hyundai Motor executives in Seoul following a US immigration raid that detained more than 300 Korean workers at the company’s joint battery plant in Georgia.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other news outlets, Kemp’s office sent emails on Sept. 8 — just four days after the unprecedented immigration raid — stating that he wishes to meet Hyundai officials during an upcoming trip to Korea and underscoring Hyundai’s importance as a key investor and partner for Georgia. The visit will be Kemp’s third to Korea.
The governor’s office noted that his planned visit to Korea had been under discussion prior to the high-profile raid and was not a direct response to the detentions.
Though details remain undisclosed, Kemp is slated to attend a Southern governors’ conference in Japan on Oct. 28-29, prompting speculation his Korea visit may take place around then.
The Georgia delegation also reportedly includes Trip Tollison, president and CEO of the Savannah Economic Development Authority, who had highlighted the detained workers’ timely return to Korea.
In an interview with the Savannah Morning News on Wednesday, Tollison said, “The frustration, and I feel it too, is that there’s no other entity in the world that has this proprietary technology that has to be installed by certain individuals. We are relying on South Korea.”
On Tuesday, Gov. Kemp framed the visa issue as extending beyond Hyundai and sought to play down the raid’s impact, noting, “We’ve had good conversations with companies that are here. … They also understand the visa issue. So at the end of the day, I don’t think that’s going to affect us.”
Although the governor minimized the aftermath of the incident, industry insiders say the Georgia state government has a lot at stake during his upcoming visit.
“Gov. Kemp will likely underscore Georgia’s support for Hyundai’s investments in local communities,” said Kim Pil-su, a car engineering professor at Daelim University. “As the visa issue at the Georgia plant is still unresolved, there should also be discussions on state-level measures to prevent similar incidents from happening again.”
the Korean executives should insist that trump come over and beg forgiveness… he is the one that triggered all this, that and the congresswoman who made the false claims… why should Kemp have to be the one?
South Korea has seen the reality of the abuse that Hispanic immigrants have been experiencing without getting media coverage. This is a page one story over there. The South Korean populace knows more about our masked Schultzstaffel than most Americans, I’d wager.
I’m sure they do, but much too polite to say so in print.
KOREA HERALD
Regarding the arrest of more than 300 Korean workers in Georgia — a move that shocked the country — Lee said, “I do not believe this was intentional, and the US has apologized for this incident, and we have agreed to seek reasonable measures in this regard and we are working on them.”
https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10580703
KOREA TIMES
“Lee expressed hope that incidents like the detention of Korean workers in Georgia would not be repeated, emphasizing the need for visa reforms. ”
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/foreignaffairs/20250923/lee-urges-us-lawmakers-to-reform-visa-system-citing-worker-detention-case