U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has started a historic visit to the long-isolated Southeast Asian nation of Burma testing the country’s first civilian government in decades on its commitment to reform, which includes severing military and nuclear ties with North Korea.

Wednesday Clinton arrived in the capital of Naypyidaw on the first trip by a U.S. secretary of state to the nation also known as Myanmar in over 50 years. She is meeting senior Burmese officials Thursday before going to the commercial capital of Yangon, where she will visit opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who is returning to the political scene after years of detention and harassment.

Clinton told reporters before her arrival here that she is obviously looking to determine for herself and on behalf of our government what is the intention of the current government with respect to continuing reforms both political and economic.

She refused to discuss the specific measures she would suggest or how the U.S. might reciprocate.

Clinton said, echoing President Barack Obama when he announced he was sending her to Burma that the U.S. and many other nations are quite hopeful that these flickers of progress … will be ignited into a movement for change that will benefit the people of the country.

The Obama administration is betting that the visit will yield dividends, promoting human rights, limiting suspected cooperation with North Korea on ballistic missiles and nuclear activity and loosening Chinese influence in a region where America and its allies are worried about China’s rise.

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