Google executive expected to visit North Korea

Posted on : 2013-01-04 11:42 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Proponent of internet freedom said to have no official agenda in trip to country with strict online controls
 Bill Richardson
Bill Richardson

By Park Hyun, Washington correspondent

Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, and Bill Richardson, former governor of New Mexico, are planning to visit North Korea sometime this month, multiple diplomatic sources in Washington said on Jan. 3.

“Schmidt and Richardson are planning to visit the North this month for personal reasons,” said a diplomatic source.

 third from the left
third from the left

This was confirmed by another diplomatic source. “My understanding is that their visit is unconnected with issues like the North Korean long-range missile launch or the Korean-American Pae Jun Ho (American name Kenneth Bae), who the North is holding in custody. I was told that they had planned the visit before Bae’s case came up.”

The Associated Press (AP) reported, “Eric Schmidt will be traveling to North Korea on a private, humanitarian mission led by former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.”

Schmidt’s visit to the North has symbolic resonance, as it will be the first time the chairman of the world’s largest internet company travels to a country with some of the world’s tightest controls on internet use.

“Schmidt is a strong believer that the Internet can be used to overcome poverty, and he is actively engaged in international activities,” another source explained. “It’s possible that he could donate some internet-related equipment to North Korea or provide some other sort of humanitarian aid.”

Detailed information is not yet available concerning the people whom Schmidt and Richardson plan to meet in North Korea or what they hope to accomplish while there. When asked to confirm whether Schmidt would be visiting the North, a Google spokesperson responded that the company could not comment on one of its executive’s personal travels, suggesting that the visit doesn’t have a commercial objective.

However, the AP, cited sources who said that Richardson “will try to meet with North Korean officials, and possibly Pae to discuss his case.”

Even so, Schmidt and Richardson’s visit to the North is being reported as a personal trip, which implies that they will not carry any message from the U.S. government.

“It’s my understanding that their visit to the North is unrelated to the U.S. government,” a diplomatic source in Washington said on Jan. 3. “It’s possible that Tony Namkung [Richardson‘s advisor] got in direct contact with the North Korean delegation to the U.N.”

The fact that the U.S. is currently pushing for strong sanctions against the North in the U.N. Security Council in response to the North’s December aunch of a long-range missile launch backs up this interpretation.

But even if that is the case, Schmidt‘s visit to the North has considerable importance, if only because of the symbolic significance of the chairman of Google, the world’s largest Internet company, visiting the North for the first time. North Korean citizens have only very limited access to the internet.

Additionally, this visit could be a chance for the North to demonstrate that it is willing to open up to foreign countries, which could influence the way the U.S. frames its policy toward the North. John Kerry, who has been nominated as the next U.S. Secretary of State, is an advocate of dialogue who has long called for a diplomatic engagement with the North.

Schmidt is well known for his passion to use the internet as a tool to help the global spread of freedom and prosperity. In the commencement address he delivered at Boston University in May 2012, he said, “The spread of mobile phones and new forms of connectivity offers us the prospect of connecting everybody. When that happens, connectivity can revolutionize every aspect of society, politically, socially, economically.”

Schmidt served as Google CEO for 10 years until he stepped down in 2011. Since then, he has been mainly involved with Google’s overseas work, meeting with politicians, business partners, and government representatives around the world.

In recent months, he and Jared Cohen, former policy advisor for the U.S. State Department, have been working together on a book about the role of the Internet. According to the AP, “Schmidt’s message [is that the] Internet and mobile technology have the power to lift people out of poverty and political oppression.”

One intriguing question is why North Korea would permit a visit by someone like Schmidt.

Much attention has been paid to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s New Year’s address, in which he stressed the transformation of North Korea into a strong and prosperous country based on scientific development. “We must concentrate our energy in the high-tech arena in order to raise our overall science and technology level to world standards,” Kim said.

This can be interpreted as implying more openness to advanced information technology, including the Internet. The Los Angeles Times and other media outlets reported that 12 North Korean government officials visited Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, and other IT firms in April 2011.

That said, Google has earned a reputation as a company that is strongly opposed to governmental control of the Internet, and it is unlikely that North Korea will easily allow its citizens to access the outside world through the net. Considering this, some question whether Schmidt’s visit to the North could have concrete results, at least in the short term.

Nevertheless, for North Korea, simply allowing Schmidt to visit the country is expected to improve the country’s overseas image somewhat.

 

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