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AFPWASHINGTON (AFP) — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice left Washington for travel to the Middle East and Asia late Sunday, as she prepared to meet her North Korean counterpart for the first time on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum.
Rice is expected to meet North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun in an informal meeting of the top diplomats of the six countries negotiating Pyongyang's denuclearization program.
She has no plans for a bilateral meeting with Pak, but will see him in the meeting with her counterparts from South Korea, China, Japan and Russia, the other four states involved in the six-party talks, officials have said.
In Abu Dhabi on Monday, Rice and Gulf Arab allies were to get a first-person account from her number-three envoy about his unprecedented but apparently fruitless participation in talks Saturday with the Iranians in Geneva.
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