Genetic data of South Korean people will be released to domestic and foreign researchers for the first time to boost study on uniquely Korean diseases.

The Science Ministry says it registered the nation's Single Nucleotide Polymorphism database with an international SNP database registrar. The Korean database contains 25-thousand pieces of data on hereditary disease and Koreans' reactions to drugs.

Global access is to begin from the middle of this month.

The release of the genetic data is expected to accelerate comparative study between Koreans and other ethnic populations.

In October 2002, the U.S., Japan, China, Britain, Canada and Nigeria jointly released three-point-three million pieces of genetic information to the global SNP Web site.