Overview

• South Korea says a Korean Air 747-8i with 368 seats will fly from Incheon to Atlanta as early as Wednesday to return detained nationals from the Hyundai–LG battery plant site.
• U.S. Homeland Security Investigations detained about 475 people on Sept. 4 in Ellabell, Georgia, most of them South Korean, in a multi-month probe that executed a judicial search warrant.
• Many of the detained Koreans were short-term engineers or equipment installers using B-1/business-visitor or visa-waiver entries, according to attorneys, though U.S. officials allege visa violations.
• Foreign Minister Cho Hyun is in Washington to arrange voluntary departures and seek assurances on future U.S. reentry as detainees complete processing at the Folkston ICE facility.
• Hyundai says none of its direct employees were arrested; LG Energy Solution says 47 of its employees were detained, and a Korean poll found about 59% view the U.S. action as excessive.