Korean firms honored, shocked by US detentions

As investments by South Korean companies such as Samsung, Hyundai Motor, and SK have expanded across the United States, roads named after these firms have steadily appeared. Local authorities have renamed roads in recognition of the companies’ decisions to build factories locally and hire large numbers of local workers.

Georgia, home to more than 110 Korean companies, has become a representative “K-industry hub” in the United States, with many roads carrying Korean corporate names. In Commerce, Jackson County, a road near the site of SK Battery America has been renamed “SK Boulevard.” In Ellabell, near Savannah, the access road to Hyundai Motor Group’s dedicated electric-vehicle plant, “Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America (HMGMA),” was named “Genesis Drive,” after Hyundai’s premium Genesis brand. Hyundai invested about $8 billion to build the metaplant, which covers 11.76 million square meters, four times the size of Seoul’s Yeouido district.

In addition, Samsung is constructing a foundry facility in Taylor, Texas, where a connecting road between the site and the highway has been designated “Samsung Highway.” In Clarksville, Tennessee, there is also “LG Highway,” named by the state government in 2018 to commemorate the opening of LG Electronics’ Clarksville factory.

Hyundai has also invested more than $2 billion in its Alabama plant through several expansions, employing more than 3,000 workers. Hyundai Boulevard, which runs in front of the factory adjacent to Interstate 65, reflects both the company’s investment and its contributions to the local community.

Yet despite such efforts, companies were stunned when more than 300 Koreans were detained in a large-scale sweep by U.S. immigration authorities at the construction site of the Hyundai-LG Energy Solution joint battery plant in Georgia, a focal point of concentrated investment. An executive at a major firm involved in U.S. investment said, “It is frustrating that the outcome of our hard-won expansion is the detention of employees.”


Won-Joo Lee takeoff@donga.com