South Korea's foreign minister has said that he hopes the United States will help Seoul address its Covid-19 vaccine shortage in return for the test kits and masks it sent to Washington earlier in the pandemic, Reuters reports.

"We have been stressing to the US that 'a friend in need is a friend indeed'," Chung Eui-yong told reporters at the Kwanhun Club, a representative association of journalists in South Korea.

He said South Korea had airlifted Washington a large volume of coronavirus test kits and face masks in the early stages of the pandemic "in the spirit of the special South Korea-US alliance," even as domestic supply was very tight.

"We are hoping that the US will help us out with the challenges we are facing with the vaccines, based on the solidarity we demonstrated last year."