SEOUL — South Korea has joined an international council that aims to develop and share treatment, vaccines and virus detection kits to combat the coronavirus pandemic, Yonhap cited the health ministry as saying, on Thursday.

The Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) system has been set up by the World Health Organization and the European Union, with Seoul taking part as a facilitation council member, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said.

It said ACT-A members plan to closely coordinate efforts to cope with COVID-19 and support the production and quick distribution of treatment as they are made available.

The ministry added that South Korea's is part of the so-called market leader group, and has been recognized as having considerable expertise and production capacity in the making and manufacturing of test kits.

Other countries in the same group are the United States, China, India, Russia, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico and South Africa.

"South Korea plans to fully take part in the ACT-A's endeavors and do its part to speed up the development of treatment and contribute to the equitable distribution of any progress made to deal with the infectious disease," the ministry said.

South Korea has earned praise for largely managing to bring its epidemic under control thanks to an extensive testing campaign and intensive contact tracing. — Agencies