“Slap in the face”: South Korea is angry at Trump

South Korea is angry after ICE arrested more than 300 of its workers at a Hyundai-LG plant under construction in Georgia.

The immigration raid on a Hyundai-LG battery factory in Georgia has sent shock waves across South Korea.“We spend a lot of money in the United States and we get slapped in the face,” said Choi Jong-gun, former vice foreign minister.

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost.com) 2025-09-08T16:00:38.520216058Z

This case comes just a few weeks after a mega-trade agreement in which Seoul pledged to invest $350 billion in the United States in return for a 15% tariff.

It will be recalled that a major immigration raid was carried out on a factory under construction in Georgia on September 4, during which nearly 475 people were arrested following a months-long investigation by the Department of Homeland Security.

South Korea has since obtained an agreement to repatriate some of the South Korean workers detained by the US authorities.

There was total incomprehension on the South Korean side: the government, former high-ranking officials and the opposition denounced this brutal action, deemed by some to be “disrespectful” towards a strategic ally and even described as a “slap in the face”.

They also stressed the importance of the trade agreement reached on July 30, as Choi Jong-gun, former vice foreign minister, recalled: “We spend a lot of money in the United States”.