Also on the way to Moscow, Rice dicussed the items on her agenda for talks with senior officials.
"Since Russia is part of the six-party framework, we can talk as we have in other places about the path back to diplomacy should North Korea choose that path. The trip to Moscow really is a continuation of the work with the members of the five parties on the North Korean file," she said.
Although Rice and other US officials insisted that the Moscow visit was about North Korea, Rice also said that she would raise a variety of other issues with her Russian hosts, including controversial regulations for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the crisis with Georgia.
"I certainly will raise the NGO law," Rice said. "There's a lot of work to be done on this issues."
NGOs operating in Russia were required to re-register with the authorities under a new law that took effect earlier this year and that Moscow said was necessary to establish order in an area that has expanded relatively unchecked since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.
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