Google exec gets look at NKoreans using Internet

Executive Chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, third from left, and former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, second from right, watch as a North Korean student surfs the Internet at a computer lab during a tour of Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang, North Korea on Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2013. Schmidt is the highest-profile U.S. executive to visit North Korea - a country with notoriously restrictive online policies - since young leader Kim Jong Un took power a year ago. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

By JEAN H. LEE

Associated Press / January 8, 2013

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He and Cohen have collaborated on a book about the Internet’s role in shaping society called ‘‘The New Digital Age’’ that comes out in April.

Using science and technology to build North Korea’s beleaguered economy was the highlight of a New Year’s Day speech by leader Kim Jong Un.

New red banners promoting slogans drawn from Kim’s speech line Pyongyang’s snowy streets, and North Koreans are still cramming to study the lengthy speech. It was the first time in 19 years for North Koreans to hear their leader give a New Year’s Day speech. During the rule of late leader Kim Jong Il, state policy was distributed through North Korea’s three main newspapers.

There was a festive air in Pyongyang for another reason: Kim Jong Un’s birthday. Though Jan. 8 is not recognized as a national holiday, like the birthdays of his father and grandfather, and his official birthdate has not been announced, North Koreans acknowledged that it was their leader’s birthday Tuesday.

Waitresses at the downtown Koryo Hotel dressed up in sparkly traditional Korean dresses and decorated the lobby with balloons.

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Follow AP’s bureau chief for Pyongyang and Seoul on Twitter at twitter.com/newsjean.