Highest-profile business envoy in years

Google Chairman could open up North Korea to outside world London – Arabstoday It is unclear if North Korean officials will meet with Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt during his planned visit, The Wall Street Journal reported. Schmidt plans to join former Ambassador to the United Nations and ex-governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson in an unofficial US delegation scheduled to travel to Pyongyang later this month, a source, whose name was not reported, told the newspaper.
Schmidt is the highest-profile US business executive to visit the reclusive Asian country in several years, the Journal reported Thursday.
North Korea provides its people with very limited access to the world-wide web. North Korean businesses and the government operate 10 websites.
North Korean President Kim Jong Un, in his New Year's Day address, stressed the importance of scientific and technological advances in business and education inside the country.
"The industrial revolution in the new century is, in essence, a scientific and technological revolution, and breaking through the cutting edge is a shortcut to the building of an economic giant," he said