Some 300 South Korean workers returned home to emotional reunions with families, one week after being detained in a major US immigration raid that left some questioning whether they would ever work in the country again.
Wearing face masks, they disembarked a chartered plane at Incheon airport and were greeted with cheers from officials, including the presidential chief of staff, before being taken by bus to meet family members.
Their return capped a week of intense negotiations by Seoul to win their release and bring them home after they were taken into custody in handcuffs and shackles — images that shocked many in South Korea, a key US ally.
Presidential Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik said he had come to the airport to highlight how seriously President Lee Jae-myung was taking the incident that had affected "innocent people of Korea".
"We're in an age of new normal in dealing with the United States," Mr Kang told reporters.
"The standard changes every time and constantly there has to be deal-making, not only on tariffs, but it'll also be the case with security issues," he said.
South Korean businesses have long struggled with obtaining proper visas for specialist staff needed at project sites for months at a time, which has led to some workers relying on grey areas in US visa enforcement.
The two countries are looking at establishing a working group to consider a new type of visa for Koreans, according to South Korea's foreign minister who visited Washington this week.
The workers were met by family members and officials from battery company LG Energy Solution (LGSE), who is partnering with Hyundai Motors to build the plant in the US state of Georgia.
The raid has threatened to destabilise ties at a time when the countries are seeking to finalise a trade deal, which includes a $US350 billion ($527 billion) investment fund to support strategic US industries.
At the arrival gate, a man unfurled a large poster depicting US President Donald Trump wearing an outfit with the initials of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) service and carrying a bag full of dollar bills with a machine gun slung across his chest. The caption read: "We're friends!"
Workers shackled and put in handcuffs
Returning workers said they were horrified by the September 4 raid conducted jointly by US immigration authorities, the FBI and the Justice Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that rounded up 475 workers at the plant's site.
"It started to look serious because we thought we would be taking the transport vehicle, but then they started putting handcuffs and shackles, and that's when we thought 'Oh, this is not going to be a simple transport,'" LG Energy Solution engineer Choi Young-hee said.
In a sign that Washington recognises the importance of South Korean investment and the skills of the country's workers needed to get plants operational, Mr Trump earlier this week offered to allow the workers to stay to train Americans.
Asked about the overture, Jang Young-seol, an engineer for an LGES subcontractor, said he'd need to think long and hard about it.
"Nobody is going to stay and work when it's like this," he said.
Returning from Washington, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said the workers' return home, initially planned for Wednesday, was halted when the US president intervened, saying it was "not right" and asked if there was a different ending to the case.
South Korean President Lee warned on Thursday that the incident could make South Korean companies hesitant about investing in the United States at a time when Mr Trump has been seeking to encourage foreign investment in manufacturing.
Hyundai has said the plant is facing a minimum startup delay of two to three months following the immigration raid.
The plant, part of a $US7.6 billion factory complex to make battery-powered models, was slated to come online later this year.
The returning workers included 10 from China, three from Japan and an Indonesian national.
Reuters/ABC
