Google exec to travel to North Korea

PYONGYANG, North Korea, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- 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 Bill Richardson, former ambassador to the United Nations and ex-governor of New Mexico, in an unofficial U.S. delegation scheduled to travel to Pyongyang this month, a source, whose name was not reported, told the newspaper

Schmidt will be the highest-profile U.S. 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 global Internet. North Korean businesses and the government operate 10 websites, the newspaper said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in his New Year's Day address, stressed the importance of scientific and technological advances in business and education.

"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.