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Under North Korea’s new leader, Kim Jong-un, a relationship is apparently building between the isolated communist country and the world’s leading purveyor of online information.
Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt arrived Monday, Jan. 7, in North Korea for a visit that is shrouded in intrigue. Reportedly, the trip is partly an effort to have an American prisoner released. Schmidt is traveling with New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, who has twice negotiated the release of Americans from North Korean detention.
In April 2011, 12 low-level North Korean officials visited Google’s Mountain View headquarters, the L.A. Times reports. Kim Jong-un reportedly sees his country’s burgeoning tech sector as the cornerstone of a new “industrial revolution.”
The U.S. State Department is not happy about the trip, noting the recent launch of a missile carrying a North Korean satellite into space, violating a prohibition on such activity.
Google has declined to comment, calling it a personal trip for Schmidt.
By Daniel DeBolt
By Daniel DeBolt
By Daniel DeBolt