Hillary Rodham Clinton makes historic visit to Myanmar.

Making a diplomatically risky trip to the long-isolated Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she wanted to see for herself whether new civilian leaders are truly ready to throw off 50 years of military dictatorship – a test that includes rare face-to-face meetings with former members of the junta whose brutal rule made a poor pariah state of one of the region's most resource-rich nations.

During her visit, Clinton will also encourage Myanmar, also known as Burma, to sever military and nuclear ties with North Korea.

Clinton arrived Wednesday in the capital of Naypyidaw on the first trip by a U.S. secretary of state to Myanmar in more than 50 years. She is to meet senior Myanmar officials Thursday before heading to the commercial capital of Yangon, where she will see opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who is returning to the political scene after years of detention and harassment.

"I am obviously looking to determine for myself and on behalf of our government what is the intention of the current government with respect to continuing reforms both political and economic," Clinton told reporters before her arrival here.

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

"We 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," she said, echoing President Barack Obama when he announced he was sending her to Myanmar.

Clinton was greeted at Naypyidaw's small airfield by a deputy foreign minister, several other officials and a large contingent of international press who were granted rare visas to cover her visit. But her presence here appeared to take second stage to the expected arrival Thursday of the prime minister of Belarus and his wife, to whom two large welcoming signs were erected at the airport and the road into the city. Belarus is often criticized for its poor human rights record and is subject to U.S. sanctions similar to those Myanmar is under.

No signs welcoming Clinton were visible as her motorcade bounced from the airport to the city on a bumpy cement road that was largely devoid of vehicles, with traffic police stopping small and scattered groups of cars, trucks and motorbikes at intersections.

The Obama administration is betting the visit will pay 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 wary of China's rise, informs American "CBS NEWS".