Students around the world use Google everyday. It’s something we all take for granted by now. In North Korea, the country with what is probably the most limited Internet access in the world, Googling is almost a privilege. But not when Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt is around.
Schmidt is visiting the locked-down country in a controversial humanitarian trip organized by former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson.
Today the American delegation visited Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang and had a chance to see its computer lab, which is equipped with HP desktops, courtesy of the deceased dictator Kim Jong Il. According to CBS News, at a certain point, a student was showing Schmidt and the rest of the delegation how he surfs the web. Then, Jared Cohen, director of the Google Ideas think tank, asked him how he searches for information. The student promptly went to Google.com on his browser.
Despite this somewhat staged demonstration, Internet access in North Korea is limited to a very select number of people. The vast majority of citizens have access to a government-run intranet that allows them to surf only state-run media and regime-approved websites with no link to the general World Wide Web.
Rumors indicate the regime might be willing to lighten up its strict stance on Internet access. “We will start having access to the Internet soon,” Ryu Sun Ryol, head of the Kim Chaek University e-library said in an interview last month, according to CBS News. At that University, students who want to access the Internet on campus need to register for permission and submit an application requesting online reasearch access.
Source : Mashable