SAN FRANCISCO, April 2 (Yonhap) -- A delegation of North Korean economic officials toured Silicon Valley on Friday, as their rare two-week trip to the United States was heading to a close.

   The 12-member delegation, comprising mid-level officials from the trade, agriculture and other ministries, has been in the U.S. since March 19 at the invitation of the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation at University of California, San Diego.

   The group also had visited New York earlier this week.

   On Friday, the North Koreans toured Silicon Valley which included a visit to the world's largest Internet firm Google for about an hour and 40 minutes amid tight security. The delegation got into the building through a backdoor, and security guards restricted journalists from accessing the visitors.

   Officials from the San Francisco-based Asia Foundation accompanied the North Koreans.

   After the visit to Google, the delegation moved to Stanford University and attended a lunch seminar organized by the school's Asia-Pacific Research Center.

   The two-hour seminar was about industry-university cooperation and also drew well-known U.S. experts on North Korea, such as nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker and former Defense Secretary William Perry, according to a participant who requested anonymity.

   The North Koreans were scheduled to leave for home on Sunday.

   It is rare for North Korean officials to visit the U.S. The North and the U.S. fought in the 1950-53 Korean War and have no diplomatic relations. The two sides have also been at odds over Pyongyang's nuclear programs and a series of provocations.

  

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