Stefan Mileschin

Google boss Eric Schmidt is heading to North Korea to help the country sort out its internet.

Schmidt is going to North Korea on a private trip led by former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. According to Associated Press, the trip is the first time a top executive from Google has headed to the place with the harshest internet censorship policies in the world.

North Korea claims that it is in the middle of what its glorious leader Kim Jong-un called a modern-day "industrial revolution" in a New Year's Day speech.

He is pushing science and technology as a path to economic development for the impoverished country, calling for computers in every school and digitised machinery in every factory.

Of course, there is the small matter of paying for it. Kim Jong-un also mentioned how he was going to stomp out cultural infiltrations from the West with rigorous censorship. He is particularly worried about his regime falling because of a flood of South Korean soap operas which are being smuggled into the country.

It is not clear what Schmidt is doing in North Korea. The country has no relations with the United States which has banned the import of North Korean-made goods.

There has been some speculation that it might have something to do with Schmidt's goal of providing people around the world with internet access and technology.

http://news.techeye.net/business/eri...or-north-korea