Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha met with the head of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) on Friday and discussed the coronavirus pandemic and efforts to develop a vaccine, her office said.

In the meeting with Jerome Kim, she said that the role of the IVI has become more important as an international organization with expertise in development and distribution of vaccines, given the world is still facing the COVID-19 pandemic without a vaccine.

In response, Kim explained that the IVI has been actively engaged in the research and development of a coronavirus vaccine and vowed to work with other international health-related organizations to that end.

The Seoul-based nonprofit organization was created in 1995 originally as a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) initiative with the goal of improving vaccine supplies to developing countries, before it became an independent international agency. South Korea provides the IVI with about $5 million every year. (Yonhap)