Apple has today announced that the iPhone 5 will be launching in South Korean on December 7, followed by 50 additional countries throughout the month including Brazil, Russia, and Taiwan. Add that to the 47 countries where it’s already on sale, and Apple’s latest smartphone will be in 97 markets by 2013.

iPhone 5 will be available in South Korea on Friday, December 7, and on Friday, December 14 in Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Ecuador, Grenada, Indonesia, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Kuwait, Macedonia, Malaysia, Moldova, Montenegro, Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.

iPhone 5 will also be available on Friday, December 21 in Barbados, Botswana, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Egypt, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St.Vincent & the Grenadines, Tunisia, Uganda and Vietnam.

The announcement comes just days after Apple announced that the iPhone 5 — and the iPad mini — will be launching in China next month. The Cupertino company is certainly going to be busy heading into Christmas, then.

This morning, iPhone 5 shipping times through the Apple online store decreased again to just 2-4 business days. That’s the lowest they’ve been seen the handset was first introduced.

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