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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