PYONGYANG, North Korea – Google's chairman wants a first-hand look at North Korea's economy and social media during his private visit Monday to the communist nation, his delegation said, despite misgivings in Washington over the timing of the trip.

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.