Key Points

Lee made the remarks at a Cabinet meeting as more than 300 South Koreans have been taken into custody at a detention center in Georgia following a recent raid by US immigration authorities on the electric battery plant construction site by Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution.

Lee told the meeting that he felt a "heavy sense of responsibility" as the president who is tasked with ensuring the safety of the people, Yonhap News Agency reported.

"Our citizens who were detained by US immigration authorities are expected to return home soon," Lee said. "I offer my deepest sympathy for the shock and distress they must have felt from this sudden incident."

"I hope that no unfair infringements on the activities of our people and businesses -- which contribute to the shared development of both Korea and the United States -- will ever happen again," he said.

Kim Yong-beom, presidential chief of staff for policy, said the government conveyed strong regret to the US government over the detention of South Korean workers.

Kim told a debate session with broadcasting journalists that Seoul officials are finalizing administrative procedures to allow the detained Koreans to return home under "voluntary departure" rather than "deportation."

Kim noted that efforts to ease visa hurdles for Korean workers over the past decade have made little progress amid growing anti-immigration sentiment in the US, stressing the need to revise visa rules in consultation with Washington to support Korean companies' investment in the US.

"If necessary, the presidential office and the White House should establish a working group to find a short-term solution and push for legislative changes in the longer term," he said.

The raid came at a time when South Korean companies have been aggressively expanding U.S. investments, especially amid the Trump administration's push to revive American manufacturing, shipbuilding and other industries.

- IANS