South Korea is in talks with mRNA vaccine makers including Pfizer and Moderna to produce COVID-19 shots in the country and is ready to offer the capacity to make up to 1 billion doses immediately, a senior government official said.br br The plan, if agreed, would help ease tight global supply of COVID-19 vaccines, particularly in Asia which lags North America and Europe in vaccine rollouts, and put South Korea a step closer to its ambition to become a major vaccine manufacturing centre.br br South Korea already has deals to locally produce three coronavirus vaccines developed by AstraZenecaOxford University, Novavax, and Russia. It also has a vaccine bottling and packaging deal with Moderna.