Hillary Clinton: diplomat, politician or advice columnist?

By Arshad Mohammed

BEIJING (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton strolled past open-air sewers in Jakarta, talked robots over tea in Tokyo with the empress of Japan and met women students in Seoul, one of whom asked how she knew her husband "would be your love."

"You know, I feel more like an advice columnist than a secretary of state today," a bemused Clinton replied.

Making her first trip as the United States' top diplomat, Clinton made one thing abundantly clear during a week-long tour of Asian capitals: she is no ordinary secretary of state.

Where most of her pinstriped-predecessors have focussed on policy, rather than people, the former presidential candidate took to diplomacy as if it was a political campaign.

Spliced in among her meetings with presidents and prime ministers, Clinton made time for an appearance on a music TV show in Indonesia, held "town hall" meetings with students in Japan and South Korea, and scheduled a web chat in China.

Beyond advancing U.S. interests in Asia, Clinton told reporters she viewed part of her job as trying to restore an American image tarnished by the Iraq war and other unpopular policies pursued by former President George W. Bush.

"We've got a lot of work to do," she said early in her trip to Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China. "I have no illusions about how high ... a hill we have to climb here to inspire confidence and respect in people's minds again."

The former first lady tried to show that the United States can be a force for good in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, by taking a walk through a modest Jakarta neighbourhood where Washington funds development projects.

With the smell of open-air sewers in the air, Clinton took in small-scale projects to purify water, recycle trash into handicrafts and offer health care to mothers and babies.

"This, to me, is what diplomacy is about," she later said. "It doesn't just operate ... government to government. It operates people to people."

ROCK STAR RECEPTION

Clinton generally got a rock star reception when she punched through the diplomatic bubble to meet ordinary people.

"Glorious to meet you," gushed a student at Japan's august Tokyo University, where Clinton talked about everything from baseball to her chat with the empress about whether Japanese robots may someday help the elderly to stay in their homes.

Visiting Indonesia ahead of a presidential election this year, Clinton made a point about the necessity of accepting the outcome of a fair election, even when you lose.

"I've had that experience, and I know," she said with ironic understatement, alluding to her defeat by U.S. President Barack Obama in the race to be the Democratic Party's presidential candidate and prompting a ripple of laughter and applause.

Clinton broke with diplomatic discretion at several points on her trip, openly talking about the possibility there could be a power struggle in Pyongyang over who may succeed North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

Western diplomats seldom, if ever, speak openly about a matter of such sensitivity, in part for fear of angering the mercurial leader of the Stalinist state, which tested a nuclear device in 2006.

"It's been in the news for months," Clinton said when asked about her comment. "I don't think that it's a forbidden subject to talk about succession in the hermit kingdom."

"I think that it's worth being perhaps more straightforward and trying to engage other countries on the basis of the reality that exists," Clinton added. "That's how I see it, and that's how I intend to operate."

(Editing by Dean Yates)