ATLANTA — Governor Brian Kemp says his recent economic development trip to Asia focused on strengthening trade relationships, including with South Korea despite controversy surrounding a federal immigration raid at a Hyundai supplier plant near Savannah.

Kemp met with leaders of major South Korean companies during the weeklong trip, including Hyundai executives. He says the incident, in which several workers were detained by federal immigration officials, did come up in conversation but did not dominate discussions. “Surprisingly, it wasn’t talked about as much as I thought it would be,” Kemp said.

The governor says much of the dialogue centered on changes to the visa program for foreign workers and ongoing cooperation with the White House to address issues revealed by the raid. “That’ll be something good that’ll come out of an unfortunate incident,” Kemp said.

South Korea’s president recently criticized the treatment of workers arrested in the raid, calling it irrational. Still, Kemp says he hasn’t sensed lasting strain on Georgia’s trade relations. “I’m not sensing that on my end, and obviously there were some upset people and upset feelings — and there probably should’ve been,” he said.

Kemp emphasized that the state remains a strong and long-term partner to South Korean businesses. “They know where things stand, they know what the state has been doing, they know that we’ve been great partners with Korean companies for over 40 years,” he said.

He added that the trip was productive and focused on future investment opportunities. “The conversation was not dominated on the visa issue; it was more on how’s it going, what’s your future plans, is there anything we can help you with, really us saying thank you for them making so much investment in our state.”

WSB’s Jonathan O’Brien contributed to this story