Add Category
Posted
Former NBA star Dennis Rodman is expected to arrive in North Korea today, marking his fourth visit to the country.
The US State Department stressed Rodman is not going to North Korea in any official capacity, and the NBA hall of famer has refused to give further details.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is believed to be a big basketball fan and has struck up a friendship with Rodman.
Photo:
Rodman and Kim Jong-un watched basketball together during Rodman's 2014 visit. (Reuters/KCNA)
Rodman met Mr Kim on previous trips to Pyongyang and has called him "an awesome kid".
In 2014, Rodman arranged a basketball game with other former basketball pros and North Koreans and regaled North Korea's leader with a rendition of Happy Birthday.
On the same trip, he suggested an American missionary was at fault for his own imprisonment in North Korea, remarks for which he later apologised.
Four Americans are being held in North Korea, including 22-year-old student Otto Warmbier, who was detained in January 2016 and sentenced to 15 years' hard labour for attempting to steal a propaganda banner.
Tensions have heightened on the Korean peninsula over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests and its vow to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the US mainland, presenting US President Donald Trump with perhaps his most pressing security worry.
Rodman appeared twice on Mr Trump's pre-presidency Celebrity Apprentice show and praised the future president on Twitter during last year's election campaign.
The unpredictable Mr Trump has offered some mixed messages to Mr Kim, saying he would be "honoured" to meet him under the right conditions and describing the young leader as "a pretty smart cookie".
But Mr Trump has also described Mr Kim as a "madman with nuclear weapons" who could not be let on the loose.
ABC/wires
Topics: sport, basketball, world-politics, government-and-politics, korea-democratic-people-s-republic-of, china, united-states