Kemp trip to Asia to include Korea stop, adds Hyundai meeting after ICE raid
Gov. Brian Kemp is set to make his third trip to South Korea since taking office, but this economic development mission will have a distinctly different tenor than previous visits.
Emails obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reveal Kemp and other Georgia officials finalized the long-planned trip to Seoul days after the high-profile immigration raid at Hyundai’s factory site near Savannah. The federal operation detained 475 workers, mostly Korean nationals, and prompted a diplomatic crisis between the U.S. and South Korea.
Emails in both English and Korean, sent four days after the Sept. 4 raid, reference Gov. Brian Kemp’s request to meet with Hyundai executives. The messages note that the automaker “is an important investor and partner of our state.” Specific details, including the dates of the meeting, were redacted for security purposes.
The trip was etched out long before the raid of Hyundai’s massive auto campus in southeast Georgia raised questions about the fate of the largest economic development project in state history.
“This travel, as with any economic development mission, was scheduled well before the events of Sept. 4, with the logistics required to organize such a mission taking months to finalize,” a Kemp spokesperson said.
It comes at a pivotal moment, as both Kemp and President Donald Trump try to navigate tensions from the raid, which turned into an international flashpoint and raised broader concerns about the stability of foreign investment well beyond Georgia’s multibillion-dollar project.
It’s the most significant overseas trip that Kemp will take this year, and it also includes a stop in Tokyo for a Southeast U.S./Japan meeting where he’ll join other Southern governors and international leaders at a summit. The meeting in Japan takes place Oct. 28-29.
The Kemp spokesperson said the governor’s attendance provides “an opportunity to strengthen Georgia’s economic, educational and cultural ties with partners in one of the world’s largest economies.”
Like other recent overseas ventures, organizers say it’s more than a ribbon-cutting tour. It’s a stress test of Georgia’s “economic hub of the South” strategy in a moment of tariff whiplash and currency volatility.
With new U.S. tariff terms reshaping economic ties between Georgia, Korea and Japan, the governor is tasked with selling Georgia to Asian executives who are recalculating supply chains, financing and U.S. market access in real time.
The visits also come at a key moment for Kemp’s political future. In the twilight of his second term as governor, he’s still keeping a door open for a potential White House bid as he works to build a foreign policy portfolio and burnish his national profile.
Trips like this allow him to showcase leadership and economic results beyond Georgia — material for both his final years as governor and any post-2026 ambitions. But it also leaves him vulnerable to attacks that he’s taking his eye off the ball, at a time when his adversaries in both parties try to paint him as a lame duck.
Trip Tollison, the top economic development official for the Savannah area, is also included on the Seoul travel plans, according to the emails. He said the routine visits to meet Korean leadership “have played an important role in strengthening the relationship between our community and Hyundai, and the upcoming trip will serve the same purpose.”
Hyundai Chief Executive José Muñoz told the AJC on Thursday that Georgia leadership has been supportive in the aftermath of the raid, which will delay the battery plant’s completion by two or three months.
While no charges were filed, federal immigration officials said most of the Korean nationals detained at the construction site lacked proper visa documentation. Muñoz noted that many were high-skill specialists in battery technology, which he said underscored the need to reassess the U.S. visa process.
Kemp, meanwhile, has sought to tamp down tensions while emphasizing Georgia’s long-standing ties with South Korea, the state’s third-largest international trading partner. He even suggested the raid could pave the way for a streamlined visa process that would allow more South Korean employees to help build and operate U.S. facilities.
“I’ve had good conversations with companies that are here doing business in Georgia — companies that are looking to do business here,” Kemp said. “And I’ve had good conversations with people in the White House about the visa issue.”
About the Authors
Zachary Hansen, a Georgia native, covers economic development and commercial real estate for the AJC. He's been with the newspaper since 2018 and enjoys diving into complex stories that affect people's lives.
Greg Bluestein is the Atlanta Journal Constitution's chief political reporter. He is also an author, TV analyst and co-host of the Politically Georgia podcast.
