GOOGLE DIPLOMACY. Google chairman Eric Schmidt wants Internet freedom for North Korea. Photo from Google.

MANILA, Philippines - Google chairman Eric Schmidt wasn't able to meet up with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un or the US prisoner Kenneth Bae, who was arrested in the country for a crime against the state. Despite this, Schmidt still managed to have some choice words regarding the country's connectivity to the world upon his return from Pyongyang.

Schmidt told North Korean officials that the country would "remain behind" unless it opened up its Internet.

"As the world becomes increasingly connected, their decision to be virtually isolated is very much going to affect their physical world, their economic growth and so forth, and it will make it harder for them to catch up economically," said Schmidt.

He added, "Once the Internet starts, citizens in a country can certainly build on top of it. The government has to do something. It has to make it possible for people to use the Internet which the government in North Korea has not yet done."

Former US ambassador to the United Nations Bill Richardson, who led the trip Scmidt was on, also urged North Korea to adopt a moratorium on ballistic missiles and nuclear tests, following the December 2012 rocket launch which the Philippines and the United Nations condemned. - with reports from Agence France-Presse/Rappler.com