“Slap in the face”: South Korea is not happy with the US

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

This 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.

Yet, a major immigration raid was carried out on at a factory in Georgia, 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.

South Korea’s response was one of total incomprehension: the government, former high-ranking officials and the opposition denounced the brutal action, considered by some to be “disrespectful” towards a strategic ally, and even described as a “slap in the face”.

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