TOKYO - A senior State Department official arrived in Tokyo Tuesday en route to North Korea to open high-level talks with a country President Bush has said is part of an "axis of evil."

James Kelly, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, will meet Japanese officials before heading for Seoul and on to Pyongyang Thursday, U.S. officials said.

Kelly's visit to North Korea marks a diplomatic breakthrough in ties with Washington, which chilled after Bush took office.

The last U.S. delegation to visit Pyongyang was led by then secretary of state Madeleine Albright in October 2000, near the end of Bill Clinton's presidency. Bush ordered a review of North Korea policy after he took office.

Kelly's trip follows a September 17 summit between Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, when Kim offered a stunning apology for the abductions of Japanese citizens and the two sides agreed to resume talks on establishing diplomatic relations.

Japan and South Korea are working with the United States to draw Pyongyang, now embarking on tentative economic reforms, out of its Cold War isolation after years of famine and reported mass human rights abuses.

North Korea has over the past six weeks agreed to reconnect rail and road links through its heavily mined border with South Korea and has proposed a capitalist enclave on its border with China.

Kelly will stop for consultations in South Korea before flying across the demilitarized zone in a small executive-style aircraft at the head of a nine-member U.S. delegation.

The United States wants to talk about North Korea's production and export of missiles, its frozen nuclear program and its conventional forces along the border with South Korea.

In January, Bush set back attempts to restore the dialogue by including North Korea in an "axis of evil," along with Iran and Iraq, now the target of a campaign to remove President Saddam Hussein. The United States said its offer of dialogue still stood but North Korea took offence at the rhetoric.

In South Korea Monday, officials played down media reports that Kelly could meet Kim Jong-il, despite the disparity in rank between the two men.

U.S. officials have not said whom Kelly will meet.