SINGAPORE (AP) — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met North Korea’s top diplomat in Singapore today, ending a four-year hiatus in cabinet-level contacts between the Bush administration and the Stalinist state over its nuclear program.

Rice and North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun smiled for photos as they greeted each other and their counterparts from the four other nations — China, Japan, Russia and South Korea — involved in the effort to get the North to abandon atomic weapons.

“I think this is quite significant,” said Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi. “It shows the six parties have the political will to move forward with the six-party talks process.”

Yang said the parties had made “major headway” in obtaining verifiable accounting of North Korea’s nuclear program.