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Second Vice Minister of Health and Welfare Kang Do-tae (left) arrives at Incheon International Airport on Sunday from his trip to the US to visit Moderna Inc. over delayed deliveries of COVID-19 vaccine. (Yonhap News)

After Moderna announced a disruption in its supply of the COVID-19 vaccine to South Korea, a government delegation visited the company's headquarters in the US but returned without confirming the vaccine delivery in August and September or finding a way to stabilize the supply.

The two sides also discussed having some of the Moderna vaccines that are supposed to be produced by Samsung Biologics distributed domestically, but Seoul said that would "take a considerable amount of time," suggesting that won't be an option in the third quarter of this year.

"We strongly requested Moderna to send us the undelivered vaccine by August or early September if at possible, to accelerate the timetable for the scheduled vaccine, and to quickly give us a concrete delivery schedule," Second Vice Health Minister Kang Do-tae, a member of the government's delegation, said in a press conference on Tuesday.

Moderna said it would "do its best" to expand its vaccine delivery for August and September beyond its original commitment and accelerate September's delivery schedule. It also agreed to provide Seoul with a delivery schedule for August and September within the week.

The South Korean government said on Aug. 9 that it had heard from Moderna that the August delivery of 8.5 million doses would be reduced by half and that a total of 9,158,000 doses, including 658,000 undelivered doses from July, would have to be renegotiated.

That was why the South Korean delegation visited Moderna's headquarters in the US, but it returned without getting any tangible results or binding commitment.

That was largely the expected outcome. Before the visit, the government indicated that it wouldn't be able to exert legal pressure.

"The exact vaccine supply schedule doesn't appear on the contract and is determined through deliberations. Thus, a hitch in delivery can't be regarded as a breach of contract," a government official said.

The four-person government delegation, which included Kang and Blue House Secretary for Social Policies Ryu Geun-hyuk, visited the Moderna headquarters on Friday and held a three-hour meeting with eight members of the company, including Corinne Le Goff, its chief commercial officer.

"Moderna apologized for the trouble it has caused to the South Korean government and public, explained the cause of the disruption in the vaccine supply, and said the problem has nearly been resolved," Kang said.

The delegation also conveyed its hope that some of the vaccine that Samsung Biologics is contracted to produce in Korea could be distributed domestically, but Moderna didn't provide a definite answer.

Samsung Biologics is planning to produce a trial product at the end of this month, but it will apparently take the company longer to manufacture the final product at scale.

Moderna staff were reportedly more interested in selling more of the vaccine. They told the South Korean delegation about the efficacy of their booster shot, given Seoul's plans to purchase booster shots next year.

By Kim Ji-hoon, staff reporter

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