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| Dennis Rodman returns to North Korea | Dennis Rodman returns to North Korea |
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| The former NBA star Dennis Rodman is flying to North Korea to help train the national team and renew his friendship with Kim Jong-un. | The former NBA star Dennis Rodman is flying to North Korea to help train the national team and renew his friendship with Kim Jong-un. |
| Rodman told reporters at Beijing's aiport that he was not going to talk about politics or human rights, but he expected to meet Kim and arrange an international tournament in Pyongyang on 8 January marking the leader's birthday. | |
| His visit comes less than a week after North Korea announced the execution of Kim's uncle Jang Song-thaek, in the North's most serious political upheaval in decades. | His visit comes less than a week after North Korea announced the execution of Kim's uncle Jang Song-thaek, in the North's most serious political upheaval in decades. |
| South Korea's president, Park Geun-hye, has described the recent events as a "reign of terror". The purging of Jang, considered the second most powerful man in the North, indicated factionalism within the secretive Pyongyang government. | |
| Rodman told Reuters: "It has nothing to do with me. I mean, whatever his uncle has done, and whoever's done anything in North Korea, I have no control over that. I mean, these things have been going on for years and years and years. I'm just going over there to do a basketball game and have some fun." | |
| The flamboyant Rodman is the highest-profile American to meet the North Korean leader since Kim inherited power from his father, Kim Jong-il, in 2011. He travelled to the secretive communist state for the first time in February. | The flamboyant Rodman is the highest-profile American to meet the North Korean leader since Kim inherited power from his father, Kim Jong-il, in 2011. He travelled to the secretive communist state for the first time in February. |
| Before the trip, the Seoul-based North Korean human rights activist Shin Dong-hyuk said in an open letter in the Washington Post that Rodman should talk to Kim about human rights abuses in North Korea. | |
| Rodman said it was not his place to talk about such issues. "People have been saying these things here and there. It doesn't really matter to me. I'm not a politician. I'm not an ambassador," he said. | |
| "I'm just going over there to try and do something really cool for a lot of people, play some games and try to get the Korean kids to play. Everything else I have nothing to do with. If it happens that he wants to talk about it then great. If it doesn't happen I just can't bring it up because I don't [want] him to think that I'm over here trying to be an ambassador and trying to use him as being his friend and all of a sudden I'm talking about politics. That's not going to be that way." Rodman said. | |
| Rodman is expected to provide North Korea's national basketball team with four days of training during the trip. He intends to return to Pyongyang in January with a team of fellow former NBA stars to hold basketball games on Kim's birthday. | |
| Rodman's trip was arranged by the Irish bookmaker Paddy Power, which has a history of controversial advertising campaigns. | |
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