Daughter of Google CEO shares rare photos she captured in restricted North Korea

 

 

Vacation, it clearly was not. Sophie Schmidt, the daughter of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, recently took a trip to North Korea with Bill Richardson, former Governor and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and her father, and captured some rare photos of the closed-off country.

Sophie shared the photos of the "Democratic People's Republic of (North) Korea" on Google's Picasa service and presented this detailed account of her trip.

"Two sets of goals for the trip: political (Richardson's side) and technological (our side). Speaking as a tech person, just getting to speak to officials in the most closed country on earth about the virtues of the Internet -- and having them (appear to) listen -- seemed extraordinary," she wrote, in part, about the trip.
 
"It was a nine-person delegation in total. We left our phones and laptops behind in China, since we were warned they'd be confiscated in NK, and probably infected with lord knows what malware."

While Sophie's photos aren't particularly revealing about this severely restricted country -- similar images have been published of North Korea in recent years -- they do show a blend of the modern (new cars), the dated (Soviet-era architecture) and the ancient (palaces).

Below are a couple of her shots. See them all in full resolution at Sophie's Gallery here and read her post of the experience here.

(Via Steve's Digicams)