The Google chairman wants a first-hand look at North Korea's economy and social media in his private visit Monday to the communist nation, his delegation said, despite misgivings in Washington over the timing of the trip. 
 
 Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt, center, and former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, second from right, leave after their meeting at a hotel in Beijing Monday, Jan. 7, 2013. Schmidt, who is part... (Associated Press) 
 
 Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt, second from right, and former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, left, leave after their meeting at a hotel in Beijing Monday, Jan. 7, 2013. Schmidt, who is part... (Associated Press) 
 
 Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt walks away from a hotel lounge after a meeting with former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson in Beijing Monday, Jan. 7, 2013. Schmidt, who is part of a delegation... (Associated Press) 
 
 Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt, right, chats with former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, right, during their meeting at a hotel in Beijing Monday, Jan. 7, 2013. Schmidt, who is part of a delegation... (Associated Press) 
 
 Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of one of the world's biggest Internet companies, 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. His visit has drawn criticism from the U.S. State Department because it comes only weeks after a controversial North Korean rocket launch; it has also prompted speculation about what the businessman hopes to accomplish. 
 
 Schmidt arrived on a commercial Air China flight with former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who has traveled more than a half-dozen times to North Korea over the past 20 years. 
 
 Richardson, speaking ahead of the flight from Beijing, called the trip a private, humanitarian mission. 
 
 "This is not a Google trip, but I'm sure he's interested in some of the economic issues there, the social media aspect. So this is why we are teamed up on this," Richardson said without elaborating on what he meant by the "social media aspect." 
 
 "We'll meet with North Korean political leaders. We'll meet with North Korean economic leaders, military. We'll visit some universities. We don't control the visit. They will let us know what the schedule is when we get there," he said. 
 
 U.S. officials have criticized the four-day trip. North Korea on Dec. 12 fired a satellite into space using a long-range rocket. Washington condemned the launch, which it considers a test of ballistic missile technology, as a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions barring Pyongyang from developing its nuclear and missile programs. The Security Council is deliberating whether to take further action. 
 
 "We don't think the timing of the visit is helpful, and they are well aware of our views," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters last week. 
 
 The trip was planned well before North Korea announced its plans to send a satellite into space, two people with knowledge of the delegation's plans told The Associated Press. AP first reported the group's plans last Thursday. 
 
 Schmidt, a staunch proponent of Internet connectivity and openness, is expected to make a donation during the visit, while Richardson will try to discuss the detainment of a U.S. citizen jailed in Pyongyang, members of the delegation told AP. They asked not to be named, saying the trip was a private visit. 
 
 "We're going to try to inquire the status, see if we can see him, possibly lay the groundwork for him coming home," Richardson said of the U.S. citizen. "I heard from his son who lives in Washington state, who asked me to bring him back. I doubt we can do it on this trip." 
 
 The visit comes just days after Kim, who took power following the Dec. 17, 2011, death of his father, Kim Jong Il, laid out a series of policy goals for North Korea in a lengthy New Year's speech. He cited expanding science and technology as a means to improving the country's economy as a key goal for 2013. 
 
 North Korea's economy has languished for decades, particularly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which since the mid-1940s had provided the country with an economic safety net. North Korea, which has very little arable land, has relied on outside help to feed its people since a famine in the 1990s. 
 
 In recent years, North Korea has aimed to modernize its farms and digitize its factories. Farmers told the AP that management policies were revamped to encourage production by providing workers with incentives. 
 
 Computer and cellphone use is gaining ground in North Korea's larger cities. 
 
 However, most North Koreans only have access to a domestic Intranet system, not the World Wide Web. For North Koreans, Internet use is still strictly regulated and allowed only with approval. 
 
 Schmidt, who oversaw Google's expansion into a global Internet giant, speaks frequently about the importance of providing people around the world with Internet access and technology. 
 
 Google now has offices in more than 40 countries, including all three of North Korea's neighbors: Russia, South Korea and China, another country criticized for systematic Internet censorship. 
 
 Accompanying Schmidt is Jared Cohen, a former U.S. State Department policy and planning adviser who heads Google's New York-based think tank. The two collaborated on a book about the Internet's role in shaping society called "The New Digital Age" that comes out in April. 
 
 Also leading the delegation is Kun "Tony" Namkung, a Korea expert who has made frequent trips to North Korea over the past 25 years. 
 
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 AP writer Gillian Wong contributed to this report from Beijing. 

 SEOUL Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt began a controversial private mission to North Korea on Monday that will include an effort to secure the release of an imprisoned American. 
 
 The trip comes after North Korea carried out a long-range rocket test last month and as, according to satellite imagery, the reclusive state continues work on its nuclear testing facilities, potentially paving the way for a third nuclear bomb test. 
 
 Footage from North Korean state television showed Richardson and Schmidt at the Pyongyang airport on Monday evening. 
 
 "We are going to ask about the American who's been detained. A humanitarian private visit." Richardson said. 
 
 Richardson's efforts to seek the release of Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American tour guide who was detained last year will mark the latest in a series of high-profile visits over the years to free Americans detained by Pyongyang. 
 
 The delegation comprised Schmidt, his daughter, Richardson and Google executive Jared Cohen, according to South Korean news media and it arrived in Pyongyang on a flight from the Chinese capital, Beijing. 
 
 The mission has been criticized by the United States due to the sensitivity of the timing. The United States does not have diplomatic relations with North Korea and the isolated and impoverished state remains technically at war with U.S. ally South Korea. 
 
 "We continue to think the trip is ill-advised," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in Washington. Last week she said the main U.S. objection was that the trip came so soon after North Korea's much-criticized December 12 rocket launch. 
 
 South Korea is in the midst of a transition to a new president who will take office in February, while Japan, another major U.S. ally in the region, has a new prime minister. 
 
 A U.S. official said the trip's timing was particularly bad from the Obama administration's point of view because it comes as the U.N. Security Council ponders how to respond to the North Korean missile launch. 
 
 "We are in kind of a classical provocation period with North Korea. Usually, their missile launches are followed by nuclear tests," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. 
 
 "During these periods, it's very important that the international community come together, certainly at the level of the U.N. Security Council, to demonstrate to North Korea that they pay a price for not living up to their obligations." 
 
 Richardson, a former ambassador to the United Nations, has made numerous trips to North Korea in the past that have included efforts to free detained Americans. The reasons for Schmidt's involvement in the trip are not clear, though Google characterized it as "personal" travel. 
 
 Schmidt did not respond to requests for comment. 
 
 Richardson told CBS television last Friday that he had been contacted by Bae's family and that he would raise the issue while in North Korea. 
 
 Pyongyang's most notable success was securing a visit from former President Bill Clinton in 2009 to win the release of two American journalists. 
 
 Last year, Jared and Schmidt met defectors from North Korea, a state that ranks bottom in an annual survey of Internet and press freedom by Reporters Without Borders. 
 
 Media reports and think tanks say that officials from the North Korean government went to Google's headquarters in 2011, something the U.S. technology giant declined to comment on. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Cho Meeyoung and WASHINGTON Bureau; Editing by Michael Perry, Ron Popeski and David Brunnstrom)
– Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt and former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson headed out today on their controversial four-day private visit to North Korea, Reuters reports. US officials have strongly criticized the visit—the first for Schmidt but at least the sixth for Richardson—because it comes as the UN Security Council is still debating how to respond to the country's rocket launch last month. Before the flight, Richardson called the trip a private, humanitarian mission, the AP reports. "This is not a Google trip, but I'm sure (Schmidt is) interested in some of the economic issues there, the social media aspect. So this is why we are teamed up on this," Richardson said. "We'll meet with North Korean political leaders. We'll meet with North Korean economic leaders, military. We'll visit some universities. We don't control the visit. They will let us know what the schedule is when we get there," he said. Richardson is also expected to seek the release of Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American tour guide detained last year.