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Donald Trump offered the South Korean workers at the center of an increase in immigration the chance of staying, the country's president said on Thursday, when almost everyone was ready to leave the United States.
President Lee Jae Myung also said that the return of the workers to South Korea was delayed by a dispute over whether they should wear handcuffs in the Seoul's demand that they are intact.
“The United States wanted to captivate our workers on the way to the airport, but we insisted that it shouldn't be that way,” Lee said on Thursday to a press conference in Seoul and added that the flight after “Trump's command that those who do not want to go back would not have to go back”.
The decision of not captivating the workers reflected the “deep bond” that was forged between Trump and Lee on a summit in Washington last month, said South Korean officials previously with Yonhap, the state's state news agency.
The workers from the Hyundai LG battery system in Georgia were to leave on Wednesday in a plane chart charged by South Korea. You will leave on Thursday.
The managing director of Hyundai, Jose Munoz, said on Thursday that the building was exposed to a delay on Thursday at the opening of at least two months. It was previously expected that it was in operation before the end of the year.
The officials also announced Yonhap that Trump informed the US officials that they should “encourage” the workers arrested in Georgia to continue working in the country and to train Americans.
Of the workers who are to be transported to Seoul, 330 decided – including 316 Koreans, 10 Chinese, three Japanese and an Indonesian citizen, according to Yonhap – and a South Korean component decided to stay in the USA.
The workers were arrested last week during a raid on the battery system, a joint venture between South Korean conglomerates Hyundai and LG. The US immigration and customs authority later published a video of workers in yellow vests, which were tied up on the ankles, wrists and waist.
Foreign Minister Marco Rubio and his South Korean College Cho Hyun met on Wednesday.
After the talks, Cho said that Seoul had “secured the assurances that they will have no problems entering the United States in the future”.
Cho added that he and Rubio had agreed to form a working group to investigate the establishment of a working visa program for South Korean citizens.
South Korean companies in the USA are pouring $ 10 billion into the construction of advanced production facilities to produce chips, batteries and electric vehicles, with the majority of the investment in the Republican majority states in the south and southeast.
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Lee said that South Korean companies are expanding in the United States were “dismayed by the situation” and would be “hesitant” to invest more in the country.
“Our workers are not there for a permanent stay – they are needed to install devices because there are no US workers [with the necessary skills] There, “said Lee.” This will have a significant impact on our investments in the USA. “
In a social media contribution after the attack, Trump wrote that he encouraged foreign companies to invest in the United States “to legally bring their very clever people with great technical talent to build world -class products”.
Additional reporting by Gregory Meyer in New York and Song Jung-A in Seoul
