South Korea aims to resolve US visa issues before executing $350 billion investment

SEOUL (GWN) – South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said on Friday the federal government will work to deal with issues confronted by Korean employees with U.S. visas before continuing with a $350 billion investment bundle that is an element of a bilateral commerce deal.

His remarks come after a latest U.S. immigration raid resulted in the arrest of tons of of South Korean employees at a Hyundai Motor battery plant in the state of Georgia.

Most of the employees returned to South Korea last week, but the incident prompted calls from firms for a new visa class to make it simpler for expert Korean employees to help set up new factories and prepare U.S. employees.

Still, visa coverage was not “a precondition” to make the U.S. investments in strategic U.S. industries, Cho said at a press convention in Seoul on Friday.

Cho said he anticipated Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend a leaders’ summit at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) discussion board, which is being hosted by South Korea in late October.

Cho, who returned from a journey to Beijing for talks with Foreign Minister Wang Yi this week, said he relayed a message on South Korea’s willingness to talk about cultural cooperation with China at the APEC conferences.

China has maintained restrictions on importing Korean leisure content, such as Ok-pop, for almost a decade to protest against the set up of a U.S.-led missile defend in South Korea.

Beijing has contended that the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system’s highly effective radar may peer into its airspace, straining ties between the international locations.

(Reporting by Heejin Kim and Cynthia Kim; Editing by Ed Davies)