During the course of its "private humanitarian mission" to North Korea, the nine-member delegation headed by ex-New Mexico governor Bill Richardson and Google's Eric Schmidt met officials in Pyongyang; and requested North Korea to put an end to nuclear and missile tests.

Even though the US government has said that the delegation's North Korea visit is an unhelpful one, Richardson said the requests which the delegation made to the North Korean authorities also included the widening of Internet access and "fair" treatment of a detained American citizen.

Richardson - who has made a number of visits to North Korea over the last few years - told the Associated Press news agency that the key message of the delegation was that North Korea would benefit from `more openness.'

According to Richardson, the delegation has given "a variety of foreign policy officials, scientists and government officials" the message that North Koreans "will be better off with more cell phones and an active Internet."

Even though neither Schmidt nor Google have made any comments about the reasons behind his visit to North Korea, Richardson has stated that the delegation had also asked North Korean officials to make sure that the US national - Korean-American Kenneth Bae - who is currently detained in the country should be given a "fair and humane" treatment.