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Jung Yeon-Je / AFP - Getty Images file
Google chief executive Eric Schmidt speaks during a news conference in Seoul.
The State Department said on Thursday the time was not right for Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and former diplomat Bill Richardson to travel to North Korea.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Schmidt and Richardson would be traveling as private citizens, not representatives of the U.S. government.
"Frankly, we don't think the timing of this is particularly helpful," Nuland told reporters, citing North Korea's launch of a long-range rocket in December. "They are well aware of our views."
People familiar with the plans tell The Associated Press that Richardson, a former governor of New Mexico, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and diplomatic troubleshooter, and Schmidt, a top figure in the U.S. technology industry and a key executive at the world's leading search engine company, could visit as early as this month.
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. North Korea is one of the world's most repressive states, with Internet access limited largely to the most influential officials and media content rigidly controlled.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offers olive branch to South in rare address
Nuland stressed Schmidt and Richardson were not acting on behalf of the United States.
"We are obviously aware of the trip that has been announced," she said, later correcting herself to say that the department was aware of media reports about the trip.
"They are private citizens. They are traveling in an unofficial capacity," she said. "They are not going to be accompanied by any U.S. officials. They are not carrying any messages from us. They are private citizens and they are making their own decisions."
On Wednesday, Google did not directly respond to a question about whether Schmidt was going to North Korea, although a spokeswoman's response suggested a visit would not be for company business.
"We do not comment on personal travel," spokeswoman Samantha Smith said on Wednesday when asked about the AP report.
North Korea said its Dec. 12 rocket launch put a weather satellite in orbit but critics say it was aimed at nurturing the kind of technology needed to mount a nuclear warhead on a long-range missile.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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Since politicians have failed to smooth over diplomatic relation between N Korea and USA for several decades, the visitation by two US businessmen for personal reasons could not make the situation worse.
Even if the N Korean and American people are indifferent toward each other, the nature of their international relationship would not have escalated to the caustic level that both govenments have created but failed to defuse.
The reason for the bickering is obvious. It is the dirty, rotten, evil politicians in both nations who are fabricating animosity and conflict between the American and N Korean people who otherwise would have remained on friendly terms. As demonstrated repeatedly through out history, with out the government officials meddling in international relations the American visitors to the USSR, Eastern European Block nations, China, Cuba, or Venezuela are met and treated by the locals with respect and friendship.
Once again, Big Government is the problem, not the solution and the special interest groups within these governments have agendas that promote fear, discord, destruction and even death. Essentially, it is the same old Machiavelli strategy: Divide and Conquer.
But what makes Schmidt uniquely qualified to solve these problems? The fact that both Novell and N Korea were failures?
Take a lesson from this politicians. To get your support businesses will give you goodies and help fund your election, but they wont hesitate do something counterproductive to your goals if it benefits them.
"The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it." --- George Bernard Shaw
Has Google forgotten the problems they are having in China? Just think of the problems they will have in North Korea. Besides, what would the North Koreans use to access the Internet with?
Americans are too stupid, they don't learn...
Google, like most Americans think they are bigger than God, what bunch of idiots.
What could a Google executive possibly think he could accomplish in North Korea, other than teaching Kim Jung Fat a better way to gather information on his subjects? What do rich people actually think? I'll tell you. The actually believe their money makes them impervious to kidnapping, allows them to circumvent the law, helps them get better seats on the airplane (if they even fly on those smelly, dirty, disgusting public airliners and not their own planes) and keeps them insulated from the lower class people they so desperately despise, but need to support their obscene lifestyle.