Rodman tells Kim Jong Un he has 'friend for life'
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Ex-NBA star Dennis Rodman met North Korea's Kim Jong Un on Thursday on the third day of his improbable journey to Pyongyang, telling the leader "You have a friend for life," a delegation spokesman said.
Rodman and Kim sat side by side at an exhibition game in Pyongyang, chatting as they watched players from North Korea and the U.S. play on mixed teams, Alex Detrick, a spokesman for the New York-based VICE media company, told The Associated Press.
Kim, a diehard basketball fan, told Rodman he hoped the visit would break the ice between the United States and North Korea, Detrick said. Kim later invited the Americans to dinner.
The encounter makes Rodman the most high-profile American to meet with the young North Korean leader since Kim took power in December 2011, and takes place against a backdrop of tension between Washington and Pyongyang.
North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test just two weeks ago, making clear the provocative act was aimed at sending a warning to the United States to drop what it considers a "hostile" policy toward the North. The two countries fought each other during the Korean War, and do not have diplomatic relations.
Rodman arrived in Pyongyang on Monday with three members of the professional Harlem Globetrotters basketball team, VICE correspondent Ryan Duffy and a VICE production crew to shoot a documentary for a new HBO TV series.
The surprise visit by the flamboyant Hall of Famer known as "The Worm" makes him an unlikely ambassador at a time when North Koreans are girding for battle with the U.S. Just last week, Kim guided frontline troops in military exercises.
The Korean War ended in a truce in 1953, and the two foes never signed a peace treaty.
Thursday's game in a packed gymnasium ended in a 110-110 draw, with two Americans playing on each team alongside North Koreans, Detrick said.
After the game, Rodman addressed Kim in a speech before a crowd of tens of thousands of North Koreans, telling him, "You have a friend for life," Detrick said.
The leader later plied the group with liquor, according to VICE TV producer Jason Mojica.
"Um ... so Kim Jong Un just got the (hash)VICEonHBO crew wasted ... no really, that happened," Mojica wrote on his Twitter feed from Pyongyang.
Duffy later invited Kim to visit the United States, a proposal met with hearty laughter from the North Korean leader, Detrick said.
Rodman and Kim sat side by side at an exhibition game in Pyongyang, chatting as they watched players from North Korea and the U.S. play on mixed teams, Alex Detrick, a spokesman for the New York-based VICE media company, told The Associated Press.
Kim, a diehard basketball fan, told Rodman he hoped the visit would break the ice between the United States and North Korea, Detrick said. Kim later invited the Americans to dinner.
The encounter makes Rodman the most high-profile American to meet with the young North Korean leader since Kim took power in December 2011, and takes place against a backdrop of tension between Washington and Pyongyang.
North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test just two weeks ago, making clear the provocative act was aimed at sending a warning to the United States to drop what it considers a "hostile" policy toward the North. The two countries fought each other during the Korean War, and do not have diplomatic relations.
Rodman arrived in Pyongyang on Monday with three members of the professional Harlem Globetrotters basketball team, VICE correspondent Ryan Duffy and a VICE production crew to shoot a documentary for a new HBO TV series.
The surprise visit by the flamboyant Hall of Famer known as "The Worm" makes him an unlikely ambassador at a time when North Koreans are girding for battle with the U.S. Just last week, Kim guided frontline troops in military exercises.
The Korean War ended in a truce in 1953, and the two foes never signed a peace treaty.
Thursday's game in a packed gymnasium ended in a 110-110 draw, with two Americans playing on each team alongside North Koreans, Detrick said.
After the game, Rodman addressed Kim in a speech before a crowd of tens of thousands of North Koreans, telling him, "You have a friend for life," Detrick said.
The leader later plied the group with liquor, according to VICE TV producer Jason Mojica.
"Um ... so Kim Jong Un just got the (hash)VICEonHBO crew wasted ... no really, that happened," Mojica wrote on his Twitter feed from Pyongyang.
Duffy later invited Kim to visit the United States, a proposal met with hearty laughter from the North Korean leader, Detrick said.
As a veteran who fought communism in Vietnam and Korea, I see no reason Rodman should be allowed to re-enter the USA. NK knows and is reminded daily of something that we in the USA don't discuss too much: NK and the USA are technically still at war. NK is our enemy, as is anyone who claims to be their friend.
Rodman... you obviously do not follow history.. the leader may have changed but N. Korea Agenda and other actions have not! Honestly, Rodman you were a character when I was growing up but now.. I have absolutely nothing but contempt for you!
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Wonder what else he bribed you with...
And some people wonder why he's called the worm......
Does Rodman support the human rights abuses and the death camps? How about the mass brainwashings from an early age or the idea you whole being isn't your own but belongs to the State who can choose to work you to death or starve you on a whim?Rodman should be stripped of his US citizenship and sentenced to life in Fed prison for being a traitor.
@joefuss You must be kidding...right!!!
Hanoi Jane? If you fast-forward about 45 years, you'll discover her as a Christian capitalist and Vietnam as an American friend. That could have happened without losing 57,000 American soldiers. As for Rodman, what possible harm can he do? Maybe it takes a flake to serve as ambassador to a flake. If America is so appalled by North Korea, why aren't we sanctioning China, the only thing propping up the jumpsuit regime?
"Rodman the most high-profile American to meet with the young North Korean leader since Kim took power in December 2011." Speaks volumes. Secretary of State didn't go, but you got Rodman.
It looks like Rodman is following Hanoi Jane's example. It's time the US government call them both whad they ar and that is traitors, at treat them accordingly. Since North Korea as much as declared war on us and as much as a state of war has existed between the US and North Korea since 1950, the punishment for traitors is death by firing squad. Have a shot life Dennis. Have an abbreviated life Jane.
I wonder if Kim took him for a visit to Camp 14? Did the Globetrotters and the Worm perform for the millions who are starving to death in labor camps for nothing more than being born to parents or grandparents who had some kind of political belief different than the Kims? Read the book "Escape from Camp 14" about the ONLY North Korean to escape from a slave camp that was born into that slave camp. This is one sick Communist society and Rodman and the Globetrotters make me sick for placating to it!
Please ... Pass... Oxygen...
Thanks posters for the comedy. Just when I thought 'Seattle' was taking over, Ya'll came through.
LMAO...
Maybe Kim Jong Un will take Rodman on a tour or the Prisons there where people are starved and tortured simply because they "breathe"........ Â Rodman needs to get a clue, the people are dying while he is puffing himself up with this Dictator.Â
If Rodman had a clue he would've lined up better post-career activities. Money must be running low.
It's truly AMAZING what the power of sports and music has done for the world uniting! Congratulations to Dennis Rodman and the Harlem Globetrotters! Next time Dennis, bring along MJ, who truly IS a game changer !!
How utterly strange.Â
Maybe the North Koreans will launch Rodman into space, we can only hope.
@Trebuchet Well if he lands on another planet with life on it, I'm sure the aliens will assume he's one of them. ;)
I believe it. They're both knuckleheads, so what's not to like? Does this mean Rodman's gonna stay?
@Zoso One can always hope.
Is the dude in the back pulling a "photobomb"?
Just another Jane Fonda selling out her country and its allies for personal gain.Â
Most Americans couldn't give a rip, but North Korea will use this dupe for propaganda purposes against their own huddled massess...starving huddled masses, I should say.
Kim Jong Un-
"Dennis, where you live?"... "I make sure and not send missle there"
If he likes it so much there, he can just stay. No big loss.
lol... wow, just wow.
"The encounter makes Rodman the most high-profile American to meet with the young North Korean leader"
Wow. Â It's only uphill from there Kim.
@Sheridan Pretty pathetic isn't it? That no politician has the intelligence to open a dialogue with N. Koreas leader so we have to rely on over the hill sports stars to save our foreign policy.
@Blindman @Sheridan I'd say an over-the-hill freak show.
Not sure whether to be glad somebody is trying to do something, or disgusted we're represented by *that thing*.
"Only Rodman could go to North Korea."
This guy is really scraping the bottom for publicity.
why would Rodman's actions surprise anyone?
So that's our hope for peace and nuclear disarmament in North Korea - Dennis Rodman? God help us all.
I wonder if Dennis Rodman can talk his new BFF into dying his hair crazy colors and getting face piercings! Now that would be a sight to see! LOL!!!
Good to see at least some people trying to ease relations with N Korea. There's no reason we have to be enemies. Its just our arrogant leaders that keep this hatred going.
@Blindman Your handle fits you perfectly. It's obvious you know nothing about North Korea and the danger they represent. I suppose you feel the same way about Iran?
@JTÂ NK presents no danger to the US. Come on. Â They can barely feed themselves and keep the lights on. Â SK is in danger, that's about it.
@JT @Blindman We're in no danger from N. Korea just like we were in now danger of being forced to wear turbans or speaking Iraqi during Bush's rein of terror. N.Korea never has been a threat to us. They just need nuclear weapons like every other country in the planet that does not want to enjoy our imperialism. We are the only terrorist nation that discharged a nuclear weapon on the public needlessly. We had already won WW2 there was no reason for Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
@Blindman
We fought a war with NK that started in 1950 and never ended. North Korea has never been a threat to us? You have either got to be kidding, or your of that generation that was never taught that the Korean War was fought by NATO troops against none other than...North Korea! Only enemies of the USA call our fight against communism "imperialism".
@Blindman @JT "Reign of terror"? Your hyperbole knows no bounds. Clearly, you have never read a history book, or taken the time to develop critical thinking skills... Or, perhaps, you're of below average IQ. Whatever it is, you desperately need to get a clue.
@Blindman @Sheridan I suggest you read an English grammar book before you read anything else. When you come across like an uneducated twit no one takes you seriously.
@Blindman @JT Tell that to the WWII vets who lost their lives in the Pacific defending our territory from one of the worst bombing atrocities America ever received.
You should get an education before you post insults to our country.
@Sheridan @Blindman Japan was already isolated because of the war, they were dieing and had no financial backing to continue the war. Try reading something other than these fake history books that are pushed in our grade schools upon ignorant kids.
@Blindman "We are the only terrorist nation that discharged a nuclear weapon on the public needlessly"  You had me until that sentence.  Allied forces gave Japan numerous opportunities to surrender before and after Hiroshima.  They refused.  The invasion of Japan would have cost Allied forces countless lives.  It was not an act of terrorism.  It accomplish with 2 drops in a short time what would have taken months/years...the carpet bombing and eventual invasion of Japan.  Crack open a history book once in awhile.
@JTÂ @Blindman Don't forget about Iraq and their WMD's!