U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declined on Friday to speculate on the prospects of the incoming normalization talks between the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). "You recognize that this is the beginning of the implementation of the agreement of a couple of weeks ago," Rice said when she was asked what she expects to get out of the normalization talks. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack has played down the prospect for immediate breakthroughs during the talks. "Don't look at it as a meeting that is going to produce immediate results. Nobody is going to come out the front door and wave a piece of paper with some agreement on it," McCormack said.
The move follows a landmark agreement in the six-party talks in Beijing on Feb. 13 in which the United States and the DPRK agreed to start talks on establishing normal relations after decades of hostility. DPRK Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan has arrived in the United States to attend the talks due on March 5-6 in New York.