Photo shows health worker at a Seoul clinic holding a vial of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. (Yonhap)South Korea has shipped 539,000 doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine to the Philippines to help the Southeast Asian nation address its vaccine shortages, Seoul's foreign ministry said Tuesday.

An airplane carrying the jabs departed from Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, earlier in the day and will arrive in the Philippines on the same day, the ministry said.

South Korea has already shared coronavirus vaccine shots with three other countries -- Vietnam, Thailand and Iran -- as it has enough vaccines to inoculate its people and help other countries.

So far, 80 percent of South Korea's population has been fully vaccinated.

The ministry said it hopes to contribute to the global fight against the pandemic via the program and further bolster ties with the Philippines. (Yonhap)