Global pharmaceutical company Moderna has agreed to provide South Korea with enough COVID-19 vaccines to inoculate 20 million people.

According to presidential spokesperson Kang Min-seok on Tuesday, the agreement was made during a video conference between President Moon Jae-in and Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel on the previous day.

The agreed amount of doses is double what Seoul had initially planned to purchase from the company, which was enough for 10 million people.

Moon and Bancel also agreed to sign the purchase deal within this year and move up the delivery of the vaccines from the third quarter next year to the second quarter.

The spokesperson said the latest deal with Moderna will increase the country's overseas vaccine purchase volume to cover 56 million people, which is more than the entire population.

South Korea and Moderna have agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding(MOU) for the state infectious disease research institute and the company to cooperate in pandemic response, clinical studies and research and development.