FM Chung hopes US will help Korea with 'vaccine difficulties'
Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong / Yonhap
Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong expressed hopes Wednesday that the United States will help South Korea address coronavirus vaccine shortages, just as Seoul helped the U.S. last year by providing test kits and face masks when its ally was struggling with the pandemic.
Chung made the comment in a forum with local journalists, a day after he revealed in a parliamentary session that Seoul is seriously discussing a "vaccine swap" arrangement with Washington. He did not elaborate on what that swap deal means.
A government official later hinted that it could include a loan deal in which South Korea receives surplus COVID-19 vaccines from the U.S. and gives the same amount back later.
"We hope that the United States can help us with the difficulties we are experiencing with the vaccines, based on the spirit of solidarity that we showed last year," Chung said during the forum hosted by the Kwanhun Club.
Chung was referring to South Korea's provision last year of 2 million antivirus face masks and exports of locally made COVID-19 test kits to the United States at the height of the pandemic.
"Our government, at the request of the U.S. government, directly flew the test kits that we successfully developed and masks that the U.S. were very short of at the time, as we took into account the special relationship between the two countries, even in a situation where our domestic supply was not enough," Chung said.
Chung, however, dismissed the idea that receiving vaccine help from the U.S. would require South Korea to give something in return, stressing that cooperation amid the pandemic should be viewed separately from diplomacy.
"I believe there are many areas that we can cooperate with the U.S., not only the vaccines but, for example, we could help the U.S. in the global supply chain that President Biden is interested in," he said.
"We're consulting with the U.S. over a way that could help each other," Chung added. (Yonhap)