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Coronavirus: South Korean mayor who boasted of securing 30 million vaccines apologises for nearly falling for fraud
- Kwon Young-jin claimed last month that a foreign trading company had promised to provide 30 million Pfizer-BioNTech jabs to South Korea’s government
- But the opposition politician, and critic of President Moon Jae-in, was forced to apologise on Tuesday after the deal turned out to be a scam
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Park Chan-kyongin Seoul
A South Korean mayor who had boasted of his city’s ability to secure Covid-19 vaccines has publicly apologised after it was revealed he almost got taken in by fraudsters.
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Kwon Young-jin, mayor of Daegu, told reporters on May 31 that a foreign trading company contacted by an association of medical institutions in the city of 2.5 million had promised to provide 30 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to South Korea’s government within three weeks.
The opposition politician had been highly critical of President Moon Jae-in’s efforts to secure vaccines, writing “headless politicians, incompetent government, coward scientists” on his Facebook page last month following Moon’s summit with US President Joe Biden, where a donation of more than 1 million Johnson & Johnson vaccines from Washington to Seoul was agreed.
Kwon said in his post that the agreement was “shameful” for Korea, but has now been forced to eat humble pie after the offer he touted was questioned by Pfizer’s subsidiary in the country and dismissed by the country’s health ministry as untrustworthy.
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“It was my mistake,” Kwon said at a press conference on Tuesday at Daegu City Hall while bowing deeply. “The image of Daegu was tarnished due to my careless words. I also caused deep wounds and disappointment to the citizens suffering from Covid-19.”
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