South Korea minister heads to US to resolve fallout from huge immigration raid

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun will head to the US on Monday as he seeks to resolve the fallout over the detention of hundreds of Korean workers during an immigration raid at a time when Seoul has committed to massive investment plans in America, Report informs via Reuters.

Seoul said on Sunday that negotiations to arrange the release of about 300 Korean workers arrested at a Georgia battery plant being built by Hyundai Motor and LG Energy Solution had concluded and a plan is in the works to fly them home this week.

The detention of the workers by the Department of Homeland Security agents sent shockwaves through South Korea, a major US ally which has been trying to finalise a US trade deal agreed in late July. It came just 10 days after South Korea's new president, Lee Jae Myung, met with US President Donald Trump in Washington and the two pledged closer business ties.

Cho's talks will centre on bringing the Korean workers, who were mostly employed by subcontractors, home via a chartered plane in what would be called a "voluntary departure", according to a South Korean foreign ministry official who declined to give further details.

Trump, who has ramped up deportations nationwide as his administration cracks down on illegal immigrants, said last week he had not been aware of the raid. He called those detained "illegal aliens."