Google prepares for secret visit to North Korea

When he lands in North Korea, even Google’s executive chairman will likely have to relinquish his smartphone, leaving him disconnected from the global information network he helped build.

Eric Schmidt is a staunch advocate of global internet access and the power of internet connectivity in lifting people out of poverty and political oppression.

This month, he plans to travel to the country with the world’s most restrictive internet policies, where locals need government permission to interact with foreigners — in person, by phone, or by email — and only a tiny portion of the elite class is connected to the internet.

But his visit may be a sign of Pyongyang’s growing desire to engage with the outside world. North Korea’s young leader, Kim Jong-un, talks about using science and technology to jumpstart the country’s moribund economy, even if it means turning to experts from enemy nations for help.

In recent years, “North Korea has made a lot of investment in science and technology, not just for military purpose but also for the industry and practical reasons,” said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at South Korea’s Kyungnam University.

Google’s intentions in North Korea are not clear. Two people familiar with the plans said the trip was a “private, humanitarian mission”.

Schmidt will be travelling with former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, a seasoned envoy, and Kun “Tony” Namkung, a Korea expert with long ties to the North.

“Perhaps the most intriguing part of this trip is simply the idea of it,” Victor Cha, an Asia expert who travelled to North Korea with Richardson in 2007, wrote in a blog post for the Centre for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington.

Kim Jong-un “clearly has a penchant for the modern accoutrements of life. If Google is the first small step in piercing the information bubble in Pyongyang, it could be a very interesting development.”

But this trip will probably be less about opening up North Korea’s internet than about discussing information technology, Lim said. North Korea may be more interested in Google services such as email and mapping, as well as software development, than in giving its people internet access, he said.

Kim Jong-un, who took power a year ago, has stressed the need to build North Korea’s economy.

In the early 1970s, communist North Korea had the stronger economy of the two Koreas. But the North’s economy stagnated in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union as the regime resisted the shift towards capitalism.

By 2011, North Korea’s national income per capita languished at about $1,200 while South Korea’s was $23,467, according to the Bank of Korea in Seoul.

And as the internet began connecting the world — a movement South Korea embraced — North Korea reinforced its moat of security.

Travellers arriving in Pyongyang are ordered to leave their mobile phones at the airport and all devices are checked for satellite communications.

However, Kim Jong-un declared on Monday that North Korea is in the midst of a modern-day “industrial revolution”.

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

More than 1.5m people in North Korea now use mobile phones with 3G technology.

But giving citizens open access to the internet has not been part of the North’s strategy.

While some North Koreans can access a domestic intranet service, only a select few have clearance to freely surf the world wide web.