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Here’s What Google’s Executive Chairman Is Doing in N. Korea Against the State Department’s Wishes

Jan. 8, 2013 1:29pm Liz Klimas

Googles Eric Schmidt Observes North Koreans Limited Internet Use at University During Visit

Google’s chief executive visited Kim Il Sung University in North Korea Tuesday after arriving on Monday. The U.S. State Department voiced its discontent over the planned visit last week. (Photo: AP/David Guttenfelder)

PYONGYANG, North Korea (TheBlaze/AP) — Last week, TheBlaze asked why Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt was planning a trip to North Korea. As he has begun his visit there this week, we’re beginning to see some of his activities on what is said to be a humanitarian mission.

On Tuesday, Schmidt observed how students “Googled” information online. Surfing the Internet is a privilege only a very few in North Korea experience. The authoritarian government imposes strict limits on access to the World Wide Web.

Executive Chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, third from left, and former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, second from right, watch as a North Korean student surfs the Internet at a computer lab during a tour of Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang, North Korea on Tuesday. (Photo: AP/David Guttenfelder

Schmidt and former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson 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 to North Korea.

The U.S. State Department criticized the trip last week.

“We don’t think the timing of the visit is helpful and they are well aware of our views,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Thursday.

Richardson has called the trip a “private, humanitarian” mission by U.S. citizens and has sought to allay worries in Washington. Watch Schmidt and Richardson arrive in N. Korea in this video:

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 a 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.

“We’re going to ask about the American detainee who is here,” Richardson said in the video. “We’re interested in the economic and political situation. We are concerned about the missile launches and we’re concerned about the importance of dialogue.”

Schmidt and Cohen chatted with students working on HP desktop computers at an “e-library” at the university named after North Korea founder Kim Il Sung. One student showed Schmidt how he accesses reading materials from Cornell University online on a computer with a red tag denoting it as a gift from Kim Jong Il.

“He’s actually going to a Cornell site,” Schmidt told Richardson after peering at the URL.

Richardson and Schmidt arrived in North Korea Monday. (Photo: AP/David Guttenfelder)

Cohen asked a student how he searches for information online. The student clicked on Google – “That’s where I work!” Cohen said – and then asked to be able to type in his own search: “New York City.” Cohen clicked on a Wikipedia page for the city, pointing at a photo and telling the student, “That’s where I live.”

Kim Su Hyang, a librarian, said students at Kim Il Sung University have had Internet access since the laboratory opened in April 2010. School officials said the library is open from 8 a.m. to midnight, even when school is not in session, like Tuesday.

While university students at Kim Chaek University of Science and Technology and the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology also have carefully monitored Internet access – and are under strict instructions to access only educational materials – most North Koreans have never surfed the Web.

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. North Koreans with computers at home can also sign up for the Intranet service.

But access to the Web is extremely rare and often is limited to those with clearance to get on the Internet.

At Kim Chaek University, instructors and students wishing to use the Internet must register first for permission and submit an application with their requests for research online, Ryu Sun Ryol, head of the e-library, said.

But he said it is only a matter of time before Internet use becomes widespread.

“We will start having access to the Internet soon,” he said in an interview last month. He said North Korea is in the midst of a major push to expand computer use in every classroom and workplace.

The U.S. delegation’s visit takes place as the U.S. 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, who has traveled to North Korea several times to negotiate the release of detained Americans, was accompanied by Korea expert Kun “Tony” Namkung. He called it “a good, productive but frank meeting,” but did not divulge further details about the talks. Namkung has worked as a consultant for The Associated Press.

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.

He and Cohen have collaborated on a book about the Internet’s role in shaping society called “The New Digital Age” that comes out in April.

Using science and technology to build North Korea’s beleaguered economy was the highlight of a New Year’s Day speech by leader Kim Jong Un.

New red banners promoting slogans drawn from Kim’s speech line Pyongyang’s snowy streets, and North Koreans are still cramming to study the lengthy speech. It was the first time in 19 years for North Koreans to hear their leader give a New Year’s Day speech. During the rule of late leader Kim Jong Il, state policy was distributed through North Korea’s three main newspapers.

There was a festive air in Pyongyang for another reason: Kim Jong Un’s birthday. Though Jan. 8 is not recognized as a national holiday, like the birthdays of his father and grandfather, and his official birthdate has not been announced, North Koreans acknowledged that it was their leader’s birthday Tuesday.

Waitresses at the downtown Koryo Hotel dressed up in sparkly traditional Korean dresses and decorated the lobby with balloons.

In CONTROL, Glenn Beck presents a passionate, fact-based case for guns that reveals why gun control isn’t really about controlling guns at all; it’s about controlling us. Find out more HERE.

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Comments (22)

JEANNIEMAC
Posted on January 10, 2013 at 9:47am
http://dancingczars.wordpress.com/2013/01/09/breaking-news-chief-justice-of-the-supreme-court-john-roberts-schedules-a-case-by-attorney-taitz-regarding-obamas-forged-ids-to-be-heard-in-conference-before-the-full-supreme-court/#respond

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Samsss
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 5:05pm
Instead of lots of disparaging comments about this trip, we might consider that it is possible that the net result will be good. Communication between enemies (potential or real) is an absolute necessity. Communication with partisan intentions is usually not – but we might just consider that the USA has much to gain from ANY communication with a people so denied as the North Koreans.
Tho we are a free nation and have so very many wonderful things to be thankful for, we have so many faults here as to render us almost “heathen”. Consider our rampant crime records: murders, assaults, racism (multi-directional) robberies, common theft, drug usage, rape, so many kinds of fraud they cannot be listed here, public displays of the worst imaginable vulgarity – all this and much, much more – especially the fact that there is an abortion performed in the USA every 90 seconds. Let us hope that from this visit may come some good. That is possible for sure and as simple “observers” hold our hostile criticisms and do a little “domestic” examination.

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G-WHIZ
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 11:23am
The STATEDEPARTMENT’s “WE arenot ammused” is all JUST-WORDS!! If this were true, they would be “detained” before takeoff!! The OBAMOFFIA is verygood at “stopping” sertain things form happenning…and verygood at JUST-WORDS!!

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Cavallo
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 10:15am
They are there to extend the well wishes of the supreme communist leader, The One Bobo the Gay, Dog Eating Marxist Messiah. Praise be upon his name and his love for Kim Jung Un. Peace be upon Chairman Obama, he wishes for them to find out how to get the changes North Korea has in place in the United States of Socialist Amerika.

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SanDiegoCountyCitizen
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 8:15am
Ill tell you what hes not doing over there…. hes not caputuring data for google street view, because they don’t have any streets, or cars for that matter! Stupid Tyrants, no Google + account for you!

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glckgrl
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 3:02am
Seeing how the State Department spreads falsehoods, just think Benghazi videos, my instinct screams these folk went there with the blessing of the State Department and higher; we are probably being fed more chicken doo propanganda and we are supposed to be stupid enough to believe that this time they are telling us truth. Sure….

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UNINFORMED
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 9:20pm
Ole schmity should have ask the student to search FREEDOM. He would have shown his shock face:-) You can betcha that $$ has something to do with visit. It always is.

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FeralHuman
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 8:28pm
Do not forget : When a progressive, communist twit moves their mouth and words come out, they are lying.

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GBTVFan_Non_American_Overseas
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 6:35pm
Google is there to help Kim (Sexiest man alive : ) ) to run a project for tagging and tracking every single slave, err, I mean citizen. This is a small scale testing of the future system to be implemented worldwide with the help of the UN, Bathhouse Barry & His Chicago Gang, and the Banksters….

The sexiest man alive (The Onion): http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/27/china-kim-jong-un

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Berfie
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 6:19pm
“One student showed Schmidt how he accesses reading materials from Cornell University online on a computer with a red tag denoting it as a gift from Kim Jong Il.”

Down the road we may see the same “A courtesy gift from ODumbo 1″

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- glckgrl
  Posted on January 9, 2013 at 3:03am
  that’s on the other side of the red tag…
  
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- FightingBear
  Posted on January 9, 2013 at 1:18pm
  I guess in the near future the Obama phones will have red tags on them indicating that they are gifts from Obama.
  
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elosogrande
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 5:32pm
Hey! Don’t forget that Bill Richardson is there too. He was instrumental in getting our government (Bill Clinton) to give North Korea two nuclear reactors, as well as billions of dolloars wirth of oil. North Korea used our reactors to manufacture the Plutonium they needed for their nuclear bombs. Jimmy – “complete buffoon” – Carter was also part of that conspiracy to help the North Koreans to go nuclear and then help Syria and Iran do the same thing, using our knowlege. Clinton’s idiot of a Secretary of State was also front and center in this plan to “level the playing field of nuclear weaponry”.

I wonder what these creeps are doing there this time. Maybe they’re helping North Korea get from the atomic bomb to the hydrogen bomb.

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- boone1
  Posted on January 8, 2013 at 6:34pm
  nothing like a communist liberal is their.
  
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Vickie Dhaene
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 5:18pm
These people are traitors in my opinion. But I keep forgetting that we are becoming a global community with goo gle leading the communication lead. Global Tracking.

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- CathyvanDyke
  Posted on January 9, 2013 at 10:26pm
  Traitors? I agree.
  
  North Korea Threatens to ‘Wipe Out’ U.S.
  Associated Press
  Wednesday, June 24, 2009
  
  SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea threatened Wednesday to wipe the United States off the map as Washington and its allies watched for signs the regime will launch a series of missiles in the coming days.
  
  The Kang Nam left the North Korean port of Nampo a week ago with the USS John S. McCain close behind. The ship, accused of transporting banned goods in the past, is believed bound for Burma, according to South Korean and U.S. officials.
  
  The new U.N. Security Council resolution requires member states to seek permission to inspect suspicious cargo. North Korea has said it would consider interception a declaration of war and on Wednesday accused the U.S. of seeking to provoke another Korean War.
  
  “If the U.S. imperialists start another war, the army and people of Korea will … wipe out the aggressors on the globe once and for all,” the official Korean Central News Agency said.
  
  http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,528880,00.html
  
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EODGhost
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 3:52pm
He’s a ****** is he believes anything coming out of their mouths. N Koreans are told what to say, when to say it and where.
The young students will simply tell him what he wants to hear and make Dear Mr. Richardson think they are living in a democratic society. All the while the bayonet is in their back and they have to worry that their entire family will be sent to a detention center.
Another stupid Liberal that thinks he can step in and save the world. Excuse me while I go watch my neighbor’s paint dry.

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- steelpanther
  Posted on January 8, 2013 at 5:54pm
  True, but internet access, even if limited will actually start the path of opening the eyes of these people much as it has in China, it’s a slow process however.
  
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- UNINFORMED
  Posted on January 8, 2013 at 9:10pm
  I’ll betcha the word FREEDOM is not on google search in NK.
  
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NOBALONEY
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 3:48pm
UTube use requires Google account.

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- stumpy68
  Posted on January 8, 2013 at 7:19pm
  set up a google account with no real info
  
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- Pontiaku
  Posted on January 9, 2013 at 12:00am
  Use Firefox + Adblock Plus + Ghostery and you wont see ads on Google or Youtube.
  
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