September 11, 2025
SEOUL – Plans for more than 300 South Korean detainees to depart Georgia on Wednesday via a charter flight have been postponed “due to circumstances on the US side,” Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
The detainees were arrested on Sept. 4 during an immigration raid at the construction site of the HL-GA battery plant, a joint venture between Hyundai Motor and LG Energy Solution, near the city of Savannah, Georgia.
“The departure on Wednesday, US time, of our nationals detained in the state of Georgia has become difficult due to circumstances on the US side,” the Foreign Ministry said Wednesday afternoon in a press statement.
“We are maintaining consultations with the US side in order to enable departure as soon as possible,” the statement added.
The Foreign Ministry declined to provide further details when asked by The Korea Herald about the rationale behind the postponement.
The Korea Herald learned from sources that the South Korean government was still trying to figure out the exact reasons for the delay. The 13-hour time difference between Seoul and Washington makes real-time communication difficult.
The South Korean government has sought to swiftly bring home more than 300 nationals detained in the US — an unprecedented situation — via a charter flight under the arrangement of “voluntary departure.” The government also aims to obtain assurances from the US that the detainees will not face disadvantages when seeking entry in the future.
However, Seoul and Washington have been at odds over administrative and technical procedures, including the terms under which the Koreans are released and the conditions for their transfer to the airport to board the chartered flight.
Cho Ki-joong, consul general at the Korean Embassy in Washington, on Tuesday said, “We are continuing preparations with cooperation from the US side regarding administrative and technical affairs,” in front of the Folkston Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE Processing Center.
Kim Yong-beom, presidential chief of staff for policy, on Tuesday also disclosed that “(US) law enforcement authorities have their own methods they insist on when it comes to transporting detainees by bus.”
“They insist on certain practices, such as handcuffing detainees again, but we are making every effort in the final administrative negotiations to ensure that such methods are not applied,” Kim said.
“We are working to complete the procedures so that our nationals can safely return in the form of voluntary departure, not deportation, and are striving to conclude this within a timely period — within a day or two.”
Though the South Korean government has referred to the departure of the South Korean detainees as “voluntary departure,” US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem notably said Monday that the Korean nationals detained in the raid will be “deported.”
The statement on the delay of the departure was announced at around 3:50 p.m. Seoul time, or 2:50 a.m. Georgia time, at the last minute. But The Korea Herald learned that the decision had been made at least a few hours before the public announcement.
The detainees were originally scheduled to be released from detention facilities at around 6 a.m. Wednesday. Most were held at the ICE facility in Folkston, southern Georgia — located 428 kilometers from Atlanta, about a 4 1/2-hour drive to the airport — and roughly 10 women at the nearby Stewart Detention Center.
Since the transfers must occur under the supervision of US immigration authorities, Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel are expected to board each bus or provide an escort to the airport.
Initially, the South Koreans were to be transported by bus to Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to board a Korean Air chartered flight. The flight was originally set to depart between 2 and 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday and was expected to arrive in South Korea between 5 and 7 p.m. Thursday, Seoul time.
Some foreign nationals among the 475 people arrested in Thursday’s raid, detained alongside the South Koreans, would initially also board the chartered flight, according to diplomatic sources.
Korean Air charter flight KE2901 left Incheon Airport at 10:21 a.m. on Wednesday, heading for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia.
Foreign Minister Cho Hyun, who made an emergency trip to Washington for consultations over the unprecedented mass detention of South Koreans, was initially expected to meet Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday local time.
However, the meeting was postponed to Wednesday morning. The Korea Herald learned from sources that Seoul and Washington have faced difficulties in scheduling the meeting between the top diplomats of South Korea and the US.
