Google Chairman Eric Schmidt and his
delegation visiting North Korea may pay a visit to North Korea's
prestigious technology university in Pyongyang during their four-
day trip, according to sources Tuesday [8 January].
The chairman of one of the world's biggest Internet companies and
former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson arrived in the North via
Beijing late Monday on what the former governor said is "a private
humanitarian mission."
While Richardson indicated he wants to secure the release of an
American being detained in the North, news outlets have raised
speculations that the Google chairman may seek business
opportunities in the North's closely-regulated information
technology sector.
The sources in Beijing said Kim Chin-kyung, the president of
Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), joined
Schmidt's team of several staff members in Beijing and boarded the
Air China flight to Pyongyang with them.
They said it is believed Kim will escort them to the technology-
oriented university and likely brief them on the school's teaching
environment for the IT sector.
Kim, a US citizen, is known for his activities promoting
education in the North and made major contributions to the founding
of PUST, the North's only private school. Set up jointly by the
North and a South Korean foundation, the school opened for its first
semester in 2010. Foreign professors give lectures at PUST in the
sectors of IT, biotechnology, trading and the English language.
Kim frequently travels between the North and the US and also
contributed to the founding of a science university in Yanbian,
China.
The schedule of their four-day trip is not known although
Richardson said during his Beijing transfer that the delegation will
meet with North Korean political and economic leaders and "will
visit some universities."
He also said Schmidt is surely interested in some economic
issues, including "the social media aspect."
Some analysts predicted the Google chairman, strongly believing
in the social power of Internet connectivity, would come up with
ways to help support the university, where rare access to
international Internet sites, including Google, is allowed almost
exclusively.
The visit, meanwhile, came only a few weeks after the North
conducted an internationally-denounced long-range rocket launch,
which the outside world suspects was a pretext to test the country's
ballistic missile technology.
