South Korea is looking at registering the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, with all necessary documents being handed over to the South Korean side at the beginning of the tear, the Russian embassy in Seoul said on its Facebook account on Tuesday, Trend reports with reference to TASS.
"The issue of the registration of Russian anti-coronavirus medicines, including Sputnik V, is being considered by the South Korean authorities. All documents that are needed for the Russian vaccine registration were referred to South Korea’s authorized agencies at the beginning of the current year," it said.
The embassy recalled that mass vaccination, including foreigners, was to kick off in South Korea in the third quarter.
South Korea’s Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said in January that the country did not rule out possible purchase of the Russian vaccine. This position was repeated by chief of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency Jung Eun-kyeong in February.
In November 2020, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) signed an agreement with South Korea’s GL Rapha on the production of more than 150 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine a year in South Korea. The first batch of South Korea-manufactured vaccines was delivered to Moscow in late December 2020.