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South Korea has since obtained an agreement to repatriate some of the South Korean workers detained by the US authorities.
There was total incomprehension on the South Korean side: the government, former high-ranking officials and the opposition denounced this brutal action, deemed by some to be “disrespectful” towards a strategic ally and even described as a “slap in the face”.
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They also stressed the importance of the trade agreement reached on July 30, as Choi Jong-gun, former vice foreign minister, recalled: “We spend a lot of money in the United States”.