South Korea and Portugal have initialed an agreement that may allow operation of direct flights connecting the two countries, the Seoul government said Saturday.   The bilateral air transport agreement was initialed at the end of two-day talks held in Lisbon on Friday, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.   If signed, the agreement will provide the legal foundation for direct flights for passengers and cargo between the two countries.   It will also allow code-sharing, under which one c

South Korea's Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-Ahn and his Uzbek counterpart agreed on Friday to expand ties to make the two countries strategic partners down the road.   During the visit, the two countries decided to settle unpaid transactions to South Korean firms currently operating in Uzbekistan.   "I am glad that the two countries' strategic alliance continues to develop," Hwang said in talks with the Uzbek's premier, Shavkat Mirziyoyev. "We hope that Uzbekistan will continue to help South Korean f

 U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Friday he will continue to defend South Korea, but wants the Asian ally to pay more for American defense support.   Speaking on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Trump also said that he's willing to hold talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, but won't go to the communist nation.   "As far as Japan and South Korea are concerned, all I'm saying is we defend them. They are paying us a tiny fraction of what it's costing. I want them to pay," Trump

Kang Sok-ju, a top North Korean diplomat who negotiated a now-defunct 1994 nuclear deal with the United States, has died, Pyongyang's state media reported Saturday.    Kang, a Workers' Party secretary in charge of international affairs, died of esophagus cancer at 4:10 p.m. on Friday at age 76, the Korean Central Broadcasting Station reported.   Kang has long been a top foreign policy brain of the North and negotiated the Agreed Framework deal with the U.S. that defused the 1994 nuclear crisis. 

President Park Geun-hye's job approval rating moved up on the back of public support for her historic visit to Iran, a poll showed Thursday.   The poll released by local pollster Realmeter showed 35.6 percent approval of the job Park is doing, up 4.6 percentage points from a week earlier.   The poll attributed the jump to increased media coverage of Park's recent trip to Tehran, where she met with her Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, and Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.   The po