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Kim described how the detainees were transported to the ICE detention facility in Folkston, Georgia, where they were confined for seven days. He recounted that the experience was both terrifying and humiliating.
"The agents confiscated our phones and shackled us around the wrists, ankles and chest. Being confined in a space controlled by armed personnel, unable to see what was happening ahead or behind, with no explanations; it was terrifying. I felt utterly powerless," he said. "We were treated like dangerous fugitives, not engineers."
Kim added that during the weeklong stay at the detention center, they were "completely cut off from the outside world and had no understanding of what was going on."
Inside the facility, conditions were described as harsh and degrading. Detainees were packed into rooms with 60 to 80 people each, sleeping on moldy mattresses and drinking foul-smelling water.
“The toilets had no privacy,” Kim recalled. “The place was cold and unsanitary — we felt like criminals even though we had done nothing wrong.”
Many also reported being subjected to racial taunts and ridicule from some guards. “They made comments about North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and even pulled their eyes sideways to mock Asians,” Kim told ABC News.
The Korean detainees were eventually released on Sept. 11 without any charges against them, but many say the psychological scars remain.
“We were detained for seven days with no clear reason. ... All we want now is for the record to be corrected and the truth to be known," Kim emphasized.
