Google executive chairman arrives in North Korea

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By JEAN H. LEE

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) - 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.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20130107/DA3L8VO83.html

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Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt, second from right, and former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, left, leave after their meeting at a hotel in Beijing Monday, Jan. 7, 2013. Schmidt, who is part of a delegation led by Richardson, is scheduled to leave Monday on a commercial flight bound for North Korea, a country considered to have the world’s most restrictive Internet policies. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

[onehandle]

1. Schmidt is a known snake who will do anything for a buck.

This is a PR stunt for the benefit of the world's biggest ad spammer.

Google has close ties to the rising corpora-fascist state to the South.

Sad to see Richardson tied up in this.

[amandabeech]

3. IIRC, there is an American being held by North Korea.

Sad to see Richardson taking the corporatists on this mission.

[onehandle]

5. True. I don't trust either Korea. nt

[Bradical79]

2. Why does Richardson keep going to North Korea?

I know it's off topic, but I'm just curious.

[amandabeech]

4. The North Koreans like him from his days as UN Ambassador.

They're sometimes willing to talk to him when they won't talk to anyone else. In fact, I think that they once requested that he be sent as a negotiator.