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National Security Office Director Suh Hoon presides over a meeting of the National Security Council Standing Committee at the Blue House on Dec. 16. (provided by the Blue House)

The National Security Council (NSC) at the Blue House said that South Korea’s diplomatic and national security teams will concentrate on acquiring vaccines for COVID-19.

“In the meeting, which was presided over by National Security Office Director Suh Hoon, the members of the standing committee agreed to review the spread of COVID-19 in Korea and other countries and to focus all the country’s efforts and capabilities in the areas of diplomacy and national security on continuing to take the necessary measures,” the Blue House said while announcing the results of the NSC Standing Committee on Dec. 17.

The South Korean government already announced on Dec. 8 that it had arranged purchase agreements with global pharmaceutical firms AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Janssen, and Moderna for enough vaccines to inoculate 44 million people, or 85% of the country’s population. But now the country’s diplomatic and national security officials have also joined the fray.

This is the second time the NSC Standing Committee has mentioned a COVID-19 vaccine, the previous time being a meeting on May 7 when it mentioned international cooperation. “We will take part in efforts by the international community to expand the global response,” the committee said at the time. But Thursday’s meeting was effectively the first time the NSC pledged to make an effort to secure the COVID-19 vaccine for Koreans.

That shows how critical the acquisition of COVID-19 vaccines has become in the eyes of the Blue House, which is apparently responding to a shift in public opinion. Koreans are starting to think that the schedule for domestic inoculation is too slow, influenced by real-time media coverage of inoculation taking place in countries such as the UK and the US. Previously, some in the Blue House had suggested that fast-tracking a domestic treatment regime was more important than vaccines.

“Even if it imposes a greater financial burden, we need to keep working to acquire more vaccine doses until we have a surplus,” Moon instructed officials on Dec. 9.

In addition, the NSC Standing Committee said its members had “reviewed the situation around the Korean Peninsula and trends in the international community leading up to the inauguration of a new American president and discussed ways to maintain stability in affairs related to our relations with the US and with North Korea.”

By Lee Wan, staff reporter

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