Google executive chairman < b>Eric Schmidt urged North Korea on Thursday, Jan 10 to shed its self-imposed isolation and allow its citizens to use the Internet or risk staying behind economically, after seeing the tightly controlled country on a private visit, according to Associated Press.

Schmidt joined former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richards in a delegation that also urged North Korea to put a moratorium on missile launches and nuclear tests that have prompted U.N. sanctions and sought fair treatment for a detained American citizen there.

"As the world is becoming increasingly connected, their decision to be virtually isolated is very much going to affect their physical world, their economic growth and so forth," Schmidt told reporters at the Beijing airport after returning from the four-day trip. "It will make it hard for them to catch up economically. We made that alternative very, very clear.

"The government has to do something. It has it make it possible for the people to use the Internet. It is their choice now. It's in my view time for them to start or else they will remain behind."

The unusual trip, which was not sanctioned by the U.S. government, has been criticized for appearing to hijack U.S. diplomacy and boost Pyongyang's profile after North Korea's widely condemned rocket launch to put a satellite into space last month.