South Korea sending chartered plane to bring back workers detained in US

South Korea will send a chartered plane to Atlanta as early as Wednesday to bring back workers detained in a huge immigration raid last week on a car battery plant in the U.S. state of Georgia, a Korean Air spokesperson said on Tuesday.

President Lee Jae Myung said Seoul would negotiate with Washington to achieve a reasonable resolution to the situation based on the spirit of their alliance, adding at a cabinet meeting that he felt a "heavy responsibility" for the detained nationals.

A Korean Air Boeing 747-8i plane with 368 seats will fly from South Korea's Incheon to Atlanta, according to the spokesperson. 

During the U.S. immigration raid about 300 South Koreans were arrested along with 175 others at the site of the $4.3 billion Hyundai Motor and LG Energy Solution project to build batteries for electric cars.

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun is in Washington to negotiate on points such as seeking assurances that the Koreans returned home will be allowed to re-enter the United States. 

The raid - the largest single-site enforcement operation in the history of the Department of Homeland Security's investigative operations - sent shockwaves through South Korea, a U.S. ally that has been trying to finalise a trade deal agreed with Washington in July.

A Realmeter opinion poll published on Tuesday showed that nearly 60% of South Koreans felt disappointed by what they viewed as excessive action by U.S. authorities in the raid, while about 30% regarded the action as unavoidable.

Two Japanese nationals and up to nine Chinese citizens were among the detainees, sources reported.

James Rim, who heads the Korean-American Association of Southeast Georgia and runs guesthouses used by Korean workers near the Hyundai plant, said two of his residents had been detained after being found to be on a visa-waiver programme that prohibits employment in the country.

On Thursday evening after the raid they did not come back for dinner, Rim said, noting two other colleagues had made it back to the guesthouse after screening during the raid.

Details on how U.S. immigration rules may have been breached have not been released by the authorities or companies involved, but South Korean lawmakers say some may have overstepped the boundaries of a 90-day visa-waiver programme or a B-1 temporary business visa.