to move up and down
The first American to meet North Korea’s new leader says Kim Jong Un doesn’t want war with the United States. He just wants President Barack Obama to call him.
Ex-NBA star Dennis Rodman says Obama and Kim share a love of basketball, so “let’s start there.”
Rodman is just back from a visit to North Korea with the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team and spent two days with Kim.
The State Department on Friday distanced itself from Rodman’s visit. (Photo: Lorenzo Bevilacqua/ABC Television/The Associated Press)
Dennis Rodman is apparently living it up in North Korea filming a new HBO series. Here he is with Kim Jong Un, enjoying the Harlem Globetrotters playing an exhibition basketball game.
The unlikely encounter makes Rodman the most high-profile American to meet Kim since the young North Korean leader 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 a warning to the United States to drop what it considers a “hostile” policy toward the North.
(Vice Media/Jason Mojica/AP)
Dennis Rodman is in North Korea. Dennis. Rodman. Is. In. North. Korea.
Former NBA star Dennis Rodman brought his basketball skills Tuesday and flamboyant style — tattoos, nose studs and all — to a country with possibly the world’s strictest dress code: North Korea.
Landing in Pyongyang with VICE television, the American athlete and showman known as “The Worm” became an unlikely ambassador for sports diplomacy at a time of heightened tensions between the U.S. and North Korea.
Rodman and VICE said the Americans hope to engage in a little “basketball diplomacy” by running a basketball camp for children and playing with North Korea’s top basketball stars — and, they hope, drawing leader Kim Jong Un to a game. Kim is said to be a huge basketball fan.
“Is sending the Harlem Globetrotters and Dennis Rodman to the DPRK strange? In a word, yes,” said Shane Smith, the VICE founder who is host of the upcoming series, referring to North Korea by the initials of its formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “But finding common ground on the basketball court is a beautiful thing. (Photo: Kim Kwang Hyon/The Associated Press)
North Korea’s IOC member wants Olympic organizers to take steps to ensure there are no more mix-ups of national flags – especially at the medal ceremonies.
Chang Ung expressed his disappointment Thursday after the South Korean flag was mistakenly displayed on the giant screen before the women’s soccer game between North Korea and Colombia in Glasgow, Scotland, on Wednesday night.
The North Koreans refused to take the field for about an hour before the match went ahead. London organizers apologized.
“This should not have happened,” Chang told The Associated Press. “I am really surprised how … the London Olympic team, the protocol people, didn’t invite someone from the team to check if it is your flag.”
Chang proposed that Olympic protocol officials meet with team leaders before each medal ceremony to check that the correct flags and anthems are being used.
