Google's Eric Schmidt 'to visit North Korea' Mr Schmidt, however, has been a vocal advocate of providing people around the world with internet access and technology. As Google's chief executive for a decade until 2011, Mr Schmidt oversaw Google's ascent from a small California start-up focused on helping computer users search the internet to a global technology giant making inroads into mobile phone markets as well as mapping. Google now has offices in more than 40 countries, including all three of North Korea's neighbours: Russia, South Korea and China. After being accused of complying with China's strict internet regulations, known as "the Great Firewall," Google pulled its search business from the world's largest internet market in 2010 by redirecting traffic from mainland China to Hong Kong. The company maintains other businesses in China, but a recent transparency report shows Google's services there sporadically are blocked. Since stepping aside as CEO, Mr Schmidt has served as Google's executive chairman, largely responsible for the company's external relationships with policymakers, business partners and governments around the world. The Richardson-Schmidt trip comes at a delicate time politically. In December, North Korea defiantly shot a satellite into space on the back of a three-stage rocket last month, a launch Pyongyang has hailed as a major step in its quest for peaceful exploration of space. Washington and others, however, decry it as a covert test of long-range ballistic missile technology designed to send a nuclear-tipped warhead as far as California. The visit also follows North Korea's announcement that an American citizen of Korean descent has been jailed in Pyongyang on suspicion of committing "hostile" acts against the state. Conviction could draw a sentence of 10 years of hard labour under North Korea's penal code. Kenneth Bae, identified in North Korean state media by his Korean name, Pae Jun Ho, is the fifth American detained in North Korea in the past four years. The exact circumstances of his arrest were not clear. Mr Richardson, a former US ambassador to the United Nations who often serves as an envoy to countries that do not have diplomatic relations with the United States, will try to meet with North Korean officials to discuss the case, the sources said. Richardson has been to North Korea at least a half-dozen times since 1994, including two trips to negotiate the release of Americans detained by North Korea.