A draft resolution condemning North Korea’s recent rocket launch is being circulated at the UN and could be passed later in the week, reports say.
SOURCE BBC News – Asia
Monthly Archives: January 2013
Foreign visitors are for the first time being allowed to take their own mobile phones into the country, though they cannot yet go online.
SOURCE BBC News – Asia
Earlier this evening, we reported on some information that had surfaced regarding Bill Richardson and Eric Schmidt’s trip to North Korea, where it was rumored they would seek the release of imprisoned American tourist Kenneth Bae. Richardson held a conference at the Beijing airport upon their exit from the country, which has just taken place. In the conference, Richardson said they were not allowed to see Bae.
North Korea was unwilling to release Bae, who was arrested last year on unspecified charges. Likewise, the delegation was not allowed to see him, but was instead promised that he is healthy. Richardson had been quoted by Reuters as saying, “We are going to ask about the American who’s been detained. A humanitarian private visit.”
For his part, Google’s Eric Schmidt says that he encouraged North Korea to embrace the Internet or risk suffering in many ways. According to the Washington Post, Schmidt said during the press conference: “As the world is becoming increasingly connected, their decision to be virtually isolated is very much going to affect their physical world, their economic growth and so forth. It will make it hard for them to catch up economically. We made that alternative very, very clear.”
During the trip, the nine-person delegation was given a tour of various technology-related facilities, as well as with students and government officials. Most people in North Korea do not have access to the Internet. In the midst of all this has been criticism from the U.S. Department of State, which said the trip’s timing is less than ideal due to recent tension with the nation.
[via Reuters]
Richardson holds briefing on North Korea trip, didn’t meet imprisoned tourist is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
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SOURCE SlashGear
Former governor Bill Richardson and Google chairman Eric Schmidt are due in North Korea on a visit described as unhelpful by the US government.
SOURCE BBC News – Asia
The office of Bill Richardson confirmed the former New Mexico governor’s planned trip to North Korea with Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt today via press release. The trip, planned for next week, is being billed as a humanitarian initiative. The duo’s team also includes Google employee Jared Cohen, the director of the software giant’s Google Ideas initiative, a think tank tasked with “tackling some of the toughest human challenges.” Ideas’ mission statement also highlights the program’s search for “challenges that affect multiple regions and demographics, so that the technological developments our insights fuel will scale to help as many people as possible.”
Via: Yahoo
SOURCE Engadget
The United States State Department is not amused by Google (GOOG) chairman Eric Schmidt’s plan to travel to North Korea. Even though Schmidt plans to go to North Korea with former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson as a private citizen and not a representative of the U.S. government, a State Department spokesperson on Thursday said that the timing of the trip wasn’t “helpful,” according to Reuters. The State Department has made its views known to both Schmidt and Richardson, although apparently neither has decided that Foggy Bottom’s concerns warrant canceling their travel plans yet.
SOURCE Boy Genius Report
The sudden death of North Korea’s leader, the ascension of his little-known son and a rocket-launch failure marked a rocky year for the reclusive nation. In rare interviews, several North Koreans tell NPR that expectations of a better life have not been met. (This piece initially aired Dec. 10, 2012, on Morning Edition).
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SOURCE Asia
