BEIJING – Former NBA star Dennis Rodman arrived back in Pyongyang
Tuesday, Chinese state media reported, after he said he was going to see
his “friend” North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, whose regime has jailed a
US citizen.
Korean-American Kenneth Bae, 44, has been held
prisoner in the North since November, and Rodman had said last week that
he might seek the man’s release.
But speaking to reporters at
Beijing airport en route to the North Korean capital, Rodman said “I
haven’t been promised anything” on Bae.
“I’m just going to meet my
friend Kim the marshal to start a new basketball league going,” Rodman
said. “I’m just trying to keep the communication job going.”
China’s
official news agency Xinhua later reported that Rodman had arrived in
Pyongyang, where he had been invited by the North’s sports authority.
On
a visit six months ago, the flamboyant Rodman declared himself a
“friend for life” of the authoritarian leader and embraced him after the
pair watched a basketball game together in Pyongyang.
The
Swiss-educated Kim, who is around 30, is reported to be a huge fan of
basketball and the Chicago Bulls, with whom Rodman won three NBA titles
alongside Michael Jordan in the 1990s.
Rodman faced ridicule from
many US commentators over the first trip, which came during high
tensions over rocket launches and atomic tests by Kim’s isolated regime.
At
the time, in an enthusiastic commentary on the Kim-Rodman meeting, the
North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted Rodman —
nicknamed “The Worm” — as saying the impasse in US-North Korean
relations was “regrettable”.
North Korea and the United States
have never had diplomatic ties.
A US envoy had been due to travel
to North Korea last week to seek Bae’s release, but Washington said
Pyongyang cancelled the invitation at short notice. KCNA quoted the
North’s foreign ministry as saying joint US-South Korean military drills
had “beclouded the atmosphere”.
Bae, a Korean-American tour
operator whose Korean name is Pae Jun-Ho, was arrested in November 2012
as he entered the hardline communist state’s northeastern port city of
Rason.(AFP)
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