Updated 6 p.m. EST, Tuesday, January
Google chairman Eric Schmidt and former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson toured a computer lab at North Korea’s leading university, Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang, on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported.
They and the members of their delegation watched as students used H.P. computers to access the Internet, a rarity in a country that restricts Web access and other forms of communication and media.
Another member of the delegation, Jared Cohen, director of Google Ideas, reportedly asked a student how they searched for information online. The student proceeded to visit Google and Wikipedia, looking up an article for New York City, where Cohen lives. The head of the library said that Internet access would eventually reach throughout the country.
Photos of the American delegation’s tour of the computer lab, via Kyoto/Newscom:
Schdmit and Richardson arrived in North Korea on Monday despite earlier publicly stated misgivings by the U.S. State Department (a spokesperson for the agency called the trip “unhelpful” coming as it did days after North Korea launched a satellite aboard a long-range rocket that Washington says could be used for missile development). Richardson pushed back, defending the trip as a private visit. Richardson is reportedly attempting to negotiate the release of a South Korean-American in North Korean custody.
The trip is scheduled to end Thursday, January 10.
Late update: The Associated Press late Tuesday published video of the U.S. private delegation’s visit to the computer on YouTube:
(H/T: CNET, The Atlantic Wire.)
