The government has drawn fire from the media for not doing enough to secure enough vaccines early, with just 3% of the population inoculated, due to tight global supply and limited access.
He said South Korea had airlifted Washington a large volume of coronavirus test kits and face masks in the early stages of the pandemic "in the spirit of the special South Korea-U.S. alliance," despite tight domestic supply at the time."We are hoping that the United States will help us out with the challenges we are facing with the vaccines, based on the solidarity we demonstrated last year.
Diplomatic efforts have not yielded any concrete steps, however, as the talks with Washington are still in an early stage, health ministry official Son Young-rae told reporters."We do not comment on the details of private diplomatic conversations," a spokeswoman said. South Korean opposition lawmaker Park Jin urged more aggressive vaccine diplomacy, calling for the government to invoke its free trade pact with Washington to secure pharmaceutical products."The FTA provides us a legal base to demand as it stipulates the two countries' commitment to promoting the development of, and facilitating access to, pharmaceutical products."
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