Korean diplomats have a message for Georgia and the United States — forgive but don’t forget.

The tight-knit relationship between South Korea and the U.S. faced one of its toughest tests in September when federal immigration agents raided Hyundai’s electric vehicle manufacturing campus near Savannah. The operation triggered outrage in Seoul, delayed construction on part of Georgia’s largest economic development project and reportedly later prompted an apology from the White House.

The majority of the detained workers were high-skilled engineers temporarily helping with equipment installation and training. The incident threatened to break decades of trust fostered between the two allied nations, catching Georgia and its ironclad relationship with Korean companies in the crossfire.

“We hope that we feel welcome again,” Lee Sung-hwan, director-general for strategy and policy planning at South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday. “Hopefully we can put behind us what happened back in September.”

But he emphasized, “The key is that it doesn’t happen again.”

Lee was among a caravan of Korean officials who visited Atlanta on Monday to tout strengthening U.S.-Korean relations, especially when it comes to emerging technologies. Korean companies are global leaders on cutting-edge batteries, semiconductors, EVs and other mobility technologies.

Georgia has quickly become a second home for many of Korea’s largest companies. South Korea is also the state’s third-largest trading partner at $17.5 billion a year.

Multiple Korean companies have multibillion-dollar projects underway across Georgia, but the largest is by Hyundai. The automaker has said it will employ 8,500 Georgia workers at its EV factory near Savannah by early next decade.

Lee said those projects are the results of decades of relationship-building.

“That long-lasting relation is like oxygen,” he said. “It’s the indispensable element that allows Korean companies to trust the investment environment, and it provides the background under which these investments can take place.”

Ryan Fedasiuk, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and an expert on U.S.-China relations, joined Lee on a panel at Georgia Tech where they discussed the landscape of Korean investment in America. Fedasiuk said the immigration raid — if not learned from — could derail an international relationship vital for both the U.S. and Korea.

“This is not an issue with the U.S.-Korean partnership,” he said. “I view this as a relic of the U.S.’s rather outmoded view of examining its visa policies and its competition for global talent.”

Choosing America

Led by Ambassador Kang Kyung-wha, the group on Tuesday is expected to tour Hyundai’s Metaplant, the same place three months ago where more than 300 Korean nationals were arrested.

The detained workers, who were accused of being in the U.S. on expired or ineligible visas, were installing machinery and training their American counterparts at a battery factory adjacent to Hyundai’s assembly plant. The Sept. 4 immigration raid was initially touted as the largest of its kind in the history of Homeland Security Investigations, but the tone quickly shifted.

President Donald Trump went from celebrating the raid to damage control, posting on social media that he doesn’t want to discourage foreign investment. Hyundai CEO José Muñoz said last month a White House official called to apologize about the raid, an incident Muñoz first learned about from news reports.

Speaking on Monday to the Georgia Tech students, Kang didn’t mention the raid but focused on how economic security and technology are no longer separate issues. For decades, the U.S. brought Korea security while China provided economic opportunity, but that dynamic has been shifting.

“In such a complex environment, we have a pressing need to deepen our understanding of the inseparable and increasingly consequential relationship between economic insecurity and technology,” she said. “The theme is even more important for Korea-U.S. relations at this particular time.”

In July, the U.S. and Korea agreed to a tariff pact that involved billions of dollars in new investment into America. That deal was finalized last month, despite the immigration raid looming over negotiations.

Lee said the reason Korea has chosen to get closer to the U.S. rather than China is twofold: competition and market access.

Starting in the mid-2010s, Korean companies saw their market share in China begin to dwindle. As examples, Lee said Samsung Galaxy used to control about a quarter of the Chinese smartphone market. Hyundai similarly had 10% of the country’s auto market. Now, both are below 1%.

“There is a growing recognition for Korean companies that China is no longer an economic opportunity for Korea and more of a juggernaut competition on the economic and industrial front,” Lee said.

Simultaneously, the COVID-19 pandemic’s disruption of supply chains for critical technologies, such as semiconductors and computer chips, served as a wake-up call. Political leaders of both American parties said they wanted more domestic manufacturing, especially for critical industries, and Korean companies were happy to oblige to increase access to the wealth of the American market.

Lee, in an effort to appeal to an Atlanta crowd, used homegrown Home Depot as an analogy.

“The motto for Home Depot used to be, ‘You can do it. We can help,’” he said. “As the U.S. seeks to do more mass manufacturing, Korea is here to help.”

Job training

A visa overhaul has become the primary policy priority for Korean officials in the wake of the Hyundai raid.

State officials including Gov. Brian Kemp have advocated for a reevaluation of H-1B visas, which grant temporary travel privileges. Korean diplomats have also lobbied to expand the E4 visa program, which would provide even more work access for high-skilled workers.

Fedasiuk said there are reasons American workers must be trained by Koreans to use equipment used in cutting-edge Korean factories, ranging from corporate confidentiality to language barriers.

“There are machines built by Korean companies that have proprietary information made in Korea. The manuals are written in Korean,” he said. “The U.S. benefits from having Korean technicians helping build that manufacturing capacity in America.”

The concern isn’t about the quality of American engineers or innovation, a distinction highlighted by semiconductor firm Absolics.

The glass substrate the company manufacturers at its semiconductor plant in Covington stems from technology developed in partnership with a former Georgia Tech professor. Minjai Cho, an Absolics board member and vice president of business innovation, said Georgia’s engineering capabilities have proven bona fides.

“Georgia is making quite a difference by being one of the foundations of this technology,” Cho said.

Lee said the Korean workers who travel to the U.S. are not intended to take American jobs or stay permanently. But he said his country expects them to be treated like valuable contributors to American projects — not traumatized like those who were detained.

“For them, words will not be enough, so it will matter absolutely to see that it in fact does not happen again,” Lee said. “Only then will they truly be reassured that the environment is safe.”

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