GM plans South Korea investment after Trump takes credit for plant closing: report

General Motors is proposing investing $2.8 billion in its South Korea operations over the next decade, even after President Trump touted the company’s decision to close one of its factories in the country. 

The automaker expects the state-run Korea Development Bank, which owns a 17 percent stake in GM Korea, to put up roughly $476 million in investment, according to a Reuters report. 

GM said last week that it would close its factory in Gunsan, South Korea, and that it wanted to “restructure its business in” the country, according to the Detroit Free Press.

During a discussion on trade with South Korea last week, Trump claimed that his policies were responsible for GM’s Gunsan plant closure, and suggested that the automaker would move jobs “back from Korea to Detroit.”

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Lim Han-taek, the head of GM Korea’s union, told Reuters that workers would go on strike if the company decides to pull out of South Korea entirely.

Lim said the union is currently focused on pressuring GM to put forward a turnaround plan in South Korea, as the company weighs its future in the country. 

GM has left markets deemed unprofitable in recent years, including markets in Europe and Russia, according to Reuters.

According to the Detroit Free Press, GM is not planning on moving jobs from South Korea to the U.S. following the Gunsan plant closure, and is trying to “create a plan that creates a viable business long-term in Korea.”

“Our costs are out of whack; we’ve lost lots of money over there with the operation of our business,” David Albritton, GM’s executive director of product development and international communications, told the Free Press.