The Google chairman wants a first-hand look at North Korea's economy and
social media in his private visit Monday to the communist nation, his
delegation said, despite misgivings in Washington over the timing of the
trip.
Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of one of the world's biggest
Internet companies, is the highest-profile U.S. executive to visit North
Korea - a country with notoriously restrictive online policies - since
young leader Kim Jong Un took power a year ago. His visit has drawn
criticism from the U.S. State Department because it comes only weeks
after a controversial North Korean rocket launch; it has also prompted
speculation about what the businessman hopes to accomplish.
Schmidt
arrived on a commercial Air China flight with former New Mexico Gov.
Bill Richardson, who has traveled more than a half-dozen times to North
Korea over the past 20 years.
Richardson, speaking ahead of the flight from Beijing, called the trip a private, humanitarian mission.
"This
is not a Google trip, but I'm sure he's interested in some of the
economic issues there, the social media aspect. So this is why we are
teamed up on this," Richardson said without elaborating on what he meant
by the "social media aspect."
"We'll meet with North Korean
political leaders. We'll meet with North Korean economic leaders,
military. We'll visit some universities. We don't control the visit.
They will let us know what the schedule is when we get there," he said.
U.S.
officials have criticized the four-day trip. North Korea on Dec. 12
fired a satellite into space using a long-range rocket. Washington
condemned the launch, which it considers a test of ballistic missile
technology, as a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions barring
Pyongyang from developing its nuclear and missile programs. The Security
Council is deliberating whether to take further action.
"We don't
think the timing of the visit is helpful, and they are well aware of
our views," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters
last week.
The trip was planned well before North Korea announced
its plans to send a satellite into space, two people with knowledge of
the delegation's plans told The Associated Press. AP first reported the
group's plans last Thursday.
Schmidt, a staunch proponent of
Internet connectivity and openness, is expected to make a donation
during the visit, while Richardson will try to discuss the detainment of
a U.S. citizen jailed in Pyongyang, members of the delegation told AP.
They asked not to be named, saying the trip was a private visit.
"We're
going to try to inquire the status, see if we can see him, possibly lay
the groundwork for him coming home," Richardson said of the U.S.
citizen. "I heard from his son who lives in Washington state, who asked
me to bring him back. I doubt we can do it on this trip."
The
visit comes just days after Kim, who took power following the Dec. 17,
2011, death of his father, Kim Jong Il, laid out a series of policy
goals for North Korea in a lengthy New Year's speech. He cited expanding
science and technology as a means to improving the country's economy as
a key goal for 2013.
North Korea's economy has languished for
decades, particularly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which
since the mid-1940s had provided the country with an economic safety
net. North Korea, which has very little arable land, has relied on
outside help to feed its people since a famine in the 1990s.
In
recent years, North Korea has aimed to modernize its farms and digitize
its factories. Farmers told the AP that management policies were
revamped to encourage production by providing workers with incentives.
Computer and cellphone use is gaining ground in North Korea's larger cities.
However,
most North Koreans only have access to a domestic Intranet system, not
the World Wide Web. For North Koreans, Internet use is still strictly
regulated and allowed only with approval.
Schmidt, who oversaw
Google's expansion into a global Internet giant, speaks frequently about
the importance of providing people around the world with Internet
access and technology.
Google now has offices in more than 40
countries, including all three of North Korea's neighbors: Russia, South
Korea and China, another country criticized for systematic Internet
censorship.
Accompanying Schmidt is Jared Cohen, a former U.S.
State Department policy and planning adviser who heads Google's New
York-based think tank. The two collaborated on a book about the
Internet's role in shaping society called "The New Digital Age" that
comes out in April.
Also leading the delegation is Kun "Tony"
Namkung, a Korea expert who has made frequent trips to North Korea over
the past 25 years.