HD Hyundai CEO Chung Ki-sun recently visited several US subsidiaries to personally meet with and extend gratitude towards employees whose family members are Korean War veterans, according to the shipbuilding giant Sunday.

As a member of an economic delegation accompanying President Yoon Suk Yeol on his state visit to the US, Chung visited HD Hyundai’s local operations in Alabama and Georgia.

In particular, he met with six employees working at a HD Hyundai power transformer plant in Alabama who are family members of Korean War veterans, to whom he paid respects and invited them to visit Korea.

“I am always thankful for the brave soldiers who sacrificed so much to serve in the Korean War,” Chung said during the meeting. “I will use this as an opportunity to further advance our country, which the veterans risked their lives to protect.”

In response, Jeffrey Warr, an employee who has worked at HD Hyundai Electric since 2012 and the son of a war veteran, was quoted as saying: “If my father were alive, I know that he would be very pleased to see how much Korea has advanced.”

Chung also offered words of support to Korean employees there who are living away from their families and thanked local workers for their contribution to HD Hyundai’s progress and success in the North American market.

HD Hyundai Electric, established in 2011 on an almost 40,000 square-meter site in Alabama, touts a production capacity of 21,000 megavolt amperes a year and employs 381 workers. The company set up a sales unit in Atlanta in 2020.