WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet her North Korean counterpart for the first time on the sidelines of next week's ASEAN Regional Forum, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday.

Rice is expected to meet North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun in an informal meeting of the top diplomats of the six countries negotiating Pyongyang's denuclearization program, McCormack said.

The 27-member ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which includes nations from Asia as well as the European Union and the United States, meets in Singapore on July 24.

Rice had no plans for a bilateral meeting with Pak, but will see him in the meeting with her counterparts from South Korea, China, Japan and Russia, the other four states involved in the six-party talks, McCormack said.

"It's really a meeting to review where the six-party process is at the moment," the spokesman added.

"All the ministers are going to be in Singapore. Why not have an informal gathering?" he said, playing down expectations of any substantial outcome from the meeting.

He continued: "It's not to produce some specific negotiated outcome ... It is a good opportunity for the ministers to be able to assess the work of their heads of delegations to the six-party talks."

"The process is moving in the right direction based on action for action," McCormack said of Pyongyang's progress in shutting down its nuclear facilities.

"Our message will be, lets move this process forward," he said.

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