(CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's admiration for Myanmar democracy activist and former political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi was hard to miss during her visit to Suu Kyi's home in Yangon. They stood together, hands clasped and all smiles -- and even shared a hug -- at a news conference Friday on Suu Kyi's porch before international journalists.
"I felt like I had known her for years," Clinton told CNN's Jill Dougherty on her second day of meeting with Suu Kyi, "because of all of the information I had about her and the interactions that friends of mine had about her that carried messages back and forth."
But Clinton's enthusiasm on the last day of her historic visit to Myanmar seemed to extend beyond her personal admiration for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who, until her release in November 2010, spent nearly 20 years under house arrest imposed by the country's regime -- one that now appears to be taking steps in the direction of democracy.
Clinton sees signs that the country, ruled by a military junta for almost 50 years and which in the past cooperated with North Korea in missile technology, may genuinely be opening up -- via its economy.
