SEOUL, March 25 (Reuters) - General Motors ( GM ), which

received a South Korea government rescue package in 2018 to stay

in the Asian country, said on Wednesday it plans to invest $600

million in its local unit to upgrade manufacturing facilities

and products.

The U.S. automaker is adding a $300 million investment to

another $300 million spending plan announced in December, it

said.

The investment will go towards modernising its two plants in

South Korea by adopting the latest models of press machines, GM

said. The funds will also be spent on upgrading production

capabilities, improving product quality and boosting

technological competitiveness for small-size sport utility

vehicles at its plants in South Korea.

The Korean unit is a "center of excellence" for production

of GM's small-size SUVs, Hector Villarreal, chief executive

officer of GM Korea, said in a statement.

GM Korea sold 462,310 vehicles in 2025, mostly via exports

to the United States, down 7.5% from a year earlier amid U.S.

tariffs on imported automobiles.

The investment plan is a positive for the company's Korean

workers as they are still worried about a potential GM exit from

South Korea, Ahn Kyu-baek, a workers' union leader, told

Reuters.

Faced with low production rates and poor sales, GM agreed on

a rescue package worth $7.15 billion from the South Korean

government in 2018. Under the terms of the binding deal, GM

cannot exit its investment in the country for 10 years.

"The company still has not announced any plan to produce a

new model of future cars like electric vehicles from its two

plants in South Korea over the past years," Ahn said.

(Reporting by Heejin Kim and Heekyong Yang; Editing by

Christopher Cushing and Muralikumar Anantharaman)