Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt, who serves as an adviser to President Obama on science and technology policy , is reportedly headed to North Korea.

“Eric Schmidt will be traveling to North Korea on a private trip led by former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson that could take place as early as this month,” the Associated Press reports based on two sources. “It would be the first trip by a top executive from U.S.-based Google to a country considered to have the world’s most restrictive Internet policies.”

Both Schmidt and Richardson, a former Democratic presidential candidate, have been rumored at different times to be as possible candidates for Commerce Secretary under Obama. Richardson joined the board of directors at Day Star Technologies, a solar energy company, last month.

Schmidt was rumored to be in line to take a post on Obama’s second term cabinet as Treasury Secretary or perhaps head of the prospective Department of Business that the president described on the campaign trail, but he recused himself from consideration.

“I said last time and I’ve said again that Google is my home,” Schmidt said. “I have no interest in working for the federal government.”