A Korean Air Boeing 747-8I from Seoul, to repatriate hundreds of South Korean workers who were detained in an immigration raid at a Hyundai-LG battery plant in Georgia last week, at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, on September 10, 2025. ELIJAH NOUVELAGE / AFP
Hundreds of South Korean workers were headed back to Seoul on Friday, September 11, after their detention in a US immigration raid that Hyundai warned would delay completion of its battery factory. South Korean workers accounted for most of the 475 people arrested last week at the Hyundai-LG battery plant under construction in Georgia, prompting tense negotiations between Seoul and Washington, staunch security allies.
A specially chartered Korean Air Boeing 747-8I carrying 316 South Koreans and 14 foreign employees departed Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Thursday, Seoul's foreign ministry said.
"Everything at Atlanta went smoothly," a foreign ministry official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Friday, ahead of the workers' expected arrival at 2:00 pm (0500 GMT). "The plane departed as scheduled with the planned number of passengers."
Subscribers only
