SEOUL (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th February, 2021) Vaccine diplomacy can help South Korea reengage the North with the Russian help, Choi Moon-soon, the governor of the northeastern border province of Gangwon told Sputnik on Monday.
"Vaccine supplies from South Korea � given that it is not ours but is made using Russian technology � could be a good way to restore inter-Korean relations, if Russia agreed to mediate," he said.
South Korea's pharma firm GL Rapha struck a deal with Russia's sovereign wealth fund RDIF to produce 150 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 per year. The plant is located in Chuncheon, the capital of the Gangwon province.
"A trilateral cooperation would be a great start. We do not have contacts with the North, and we would welcome Russia's help in this regard," Gov. Choi admitted in an interview.
Contacts between the North and the South broke off in summer, after Pyongyang accused Seoul of allowing its human rights activists to launch propaganda leaflets across the border. The breakup marked the end of two years of inter-Korean rapprochement that was kick-started by Donald Trump.
