BATON ROUGE — South Korean Ambassador to the United States Kyung-wha Kang visited Louisiana State University on Tuesday to highlight growing economic and technological ties between South Korea and Louisiana, focusing on advanced manufacturing, innovation and direct foreign investment.

Her visit to the LSU Student Union follows the September groundbreaking of Hyundai-POSCO Louisiana Steel’s $5.8 billion facility in nearby Donaldsonville. The joint venture project in Ascension Parish is projected by state economic officials to generate more than 1,300 direct jobs with an average annual salary of $95,000, along with roughly 4,100 indirect jobs ahead of its planned 2029 operational launch.

Tuesday’s morning panel at LSU, co-hosted with the Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI) and the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, brought together university leadership, foreign diplomats and economic researchers to explore research collaborations and workforce pipelines supporting the state’s industrial expansion.

The Baton Rouge stop concluded a two-day public diplomacy tour across South Louisiana. On Monday, Ambassador Kang was in New Orleans at Tulane University, where she opened discussions on U.S.–South Korea maritime security, supply chains and commercial shipbuilding initiatives alongside Gulf Coast industry partners.