Google exec sees a lucky few surf Web in N. Korea
"He's actually going to a Cornell site," Eric Schmidt said during his visit to an "e-library." But government controls are strict and access to the Internet is rare.
PYONGYANG, North Korea - Students at North Korea's premier university showed Google's executive chairman Tuesday how they look for information online: They Google it.
But surfing the Internet that way is the privilege of very few in North Korea, whose authoritarian government imposes strict limits on access to the World Wide Web.
Google's Eric Schmidt got a first look at North Korea's limited Internet use when an American delegation he and former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson are leading visited a computer lab at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang. Other members of the delegation on the unusual four-day trip include Schmidt's daughter, Sophie, and Jared Cohen, director of the Google Ideas think tank.
Schmidt, who is the highest-profile U.S. business executive to visit North Korea since leader Kim Jong Un took power a year ago, has not spoken publicly about the reasons behind the journey.
Richardson has called the trip a "private, humanitarian" mission by U.S. citizens and has sought to allay worries in Washington.
North Korea is holding a U.S. citizen accused by Pyongyang of committing "hostile" acts against the state, charges that could carry 10 years in prison or longer. Richardson told the Associated Press he would speak to North Korean officials about Kenneth Bae's detention and seek to visit the American, held since November.
Schmidt and Cohen spoke with students working on HP desktop computers at an "e-library" at the university named after North Korea's founder. "He's actually going to a Cornell site," Schmidt told Richardson after peering at a URL.
Kim Su Hyang, a librarian, said the university had had Internet access since the laboratory opened in April 2010.
Computers at Pyongyang's main library at the Grand People's Study house are linked to a domestic Intranet service that allows them to read state-run media online and access a trove of reading materials culled by North Korean officials.
But access to the World Wide Web is extremely rare and often is limited to those with clearance to get on the Internet.
The U.S. delegation's visit takes place as Washington pushes to punish North Korea for launching a long-range rocket in December.
Pyongyang celebrates the launch as a peaceful bid to send a satellite into space. The U.S. and other critics, however, condemn it as a covert test of long-range missile technology, and are urging the U.N. Security Council to take action against North Korea.
After arriving in Pyongyang on Monday evening, the group met Tuesday with officials at North Korea's Foreign Ministry.
Richardson called it "a good, productive, but frank meeting" but did not divulge further details about the talks.