Welcome to Arirang News.

This is Key Kim

We start with the top headlines at this hour.

1.

South Korea is NOT ruling out the possibility of curbing exports of AstraZeneca's Covid-19 shots produced in the country.

That's according to the nation's health authorities on Tuesday when asked about that possibility... amid growing concerns about delayed shipments of vaccines as the U.S., Europe and India take steps to strengthen control over vaccine exports to deal with global vaccine shortages.

South Korea's mass immunization program has so far been mainly reliant on locally produced AstraZeneca shots, although it did secure a smaller volume of Pfizer shots that are now being used for the older population.

With more than 35-thousand people having received their vaccine on Tuesday, more than one million first doses have been administered in the country.

But, that's still less than two percent of the entire population.

To speed up the rollout, the nation's health authorities are expected to make an announcement on Wednesday regarding the final approval of Johnson and Johnson Janssen's single-dose Covid-19 vaccine in South Korea.

Meanwhile, the country added 478 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday... the second day in a row that the number has been in the four hundreds.

All but 18 were locally transmitted…. bringing its virus caseload to over 106-thousand.

2.

North Korea will not be taking part in the Tokyo Olympics in July this year... because of coronavirus

fears.

A website run by the North's Sports Ministry said its national Olympic Committee had decided not to participate in the Games to protect its athletes from the Covid-19 pandemic.

This will be the first time North Korea has missed a Summer Olympics since it boycotted Seoul in 1988.

It's a blow to South Korea's hopes of using the Games to engage with the North as the sporting event this summer had been considered one of the last-remaining chances to kickstart the stalled cross border talks before the end of President Moon Jae-in's term next year.

3.

North Korea is labeling a UN report on child malnutrition in the North "seriously distorted".

It says it'll examine whether humanitarian aid projects under the UN and NGOs are really there to help them.

In a statement carried by its state media Tuesday, the North's health ministry rejected the UN panel of experts' report that close to 100-thousand children in North Korea are suffering from malnutrition due to COVID-19 border restrictions.

It vowed to take resolute countermeasures against these entities that are siding with (quote) "hostile forces."

This comes as Japan extended unilateral sanctions against Pyeongyang by another two years in response to the North's nuclear and missile programs... ahead of an upcoming U.S.-Japan summit.

Japan has imposed unilateral sanctions against North Korea since 2006.

4.

South Korea is ready to work with members of the QUAD - namely, Australia, India, Japan and the U.S. - on an issue-by-issue basis.

Diplomatic sources in Seoul proposed areas in which the country can cooperate... including responding to the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change.

Seoul also maintained its stance that it has not received an official request from the QUAD to join the forum.

The Quad is seen by many as a U.S.-led coalition to counter China, leaving South Korea in a tough spot between Washington and Beijing.

Watchers say there's no concerted agreement within the Quad about a possible expansion.

South Korea remains cautious anyway, saying it can cooperate with any consultative body that's "open, transparent and inclusive."

5.

South Korean shipbuilders won more than half of all global ship orders in March -- around 55 percent -- accounting for the world's largest share for the third month in a row.

According to UK-based industry tracker Clarkson Research Services,... South Korea won orders for 63 ships or 2-point-8-6 million compensated gross tons -- out of 133 orders worldwide.

The March figure is up 320 percent on-year.

South Korea was followed by China and Germany.

In the first quarter, South Korean shipyards sealed orders for 126 ships -- or 52 percent of all global orders.

They were for various ships, including container carriers and eco-friendly vessels... as the industry recovers from the pandemic-related turmoil.

59:00’

Moving to weather forecast.

Warm spring weather continues, yet smog coming from China tonight will blanket the peninsula making the air quality bad again, bringing the fine dust level to bad on Western coast.

The temperature gap is still wide, so have an extra layer with you.

Although we’ll continue to have nice weather, there might be some drizzles for the Eastern coast.

We are not seeing any rain in the forecast for the rest of the week.

Seoul will kick off at 8 degrees, tomorrow, jeju at 10.

The current temperatures are:

_______ degrees in Seoul

_______ degrees in Suwon

_______ degrees in Daegu

_______ degrees in Busan

And _______ degrees on Jejudo Island

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