THE KIM-POSSIBLE DREAM: Dennis “Worm” Rodman yesterday tells George Stephanopoulos about his visit with Kim Jong Un in North Korea. (
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WASHINGTON — Call me? Maybe?
North Korea’s young leader has riled the United States with recent nuclear tests, but Kim Jong Un doesn’t really want war with the superpower, just a call from President Obama to chat about their shared love of basketball, according to would-be diplomat Dennis Rodman, the ex-NBA star just back from an improbable visit to the reclusive communist country.
“He loves basketball . . . I said, ‘Obama loves basketball. Let’s start there,’ ” as a way to warm up relations between the United States and North Korea, Rodman told ABC’s “This Week.”
“He asked me to give Obama something to say and do one thing. He wants Obama to do one thing — call him,” said Rodman, who called the authoritarian leader an “awesome guy” during his trip. The State Department criticized North Korea last week for “wining and dining” Rodman while its own people go hungry.
Rodman also said Kim told him, “I don’t want to do war. I don’t want to do war.”
Yet in January, after the UN Security Council voted to condemn North Korea’s successful rocket launch in December and expand penalties against Kim’s government, his National Defense Commission said in a statement that “settling accounts with the US needs to be done with force, not with words.” The statement also promised “a new phase of the anti-US struggle that has lasted century after century.”
Rodman is the highest-profile American to meet Kim since he inherited power from his father, Kim Jong Il, in 2011. He was traveling with the Harlem Globetrotters for a new HBO series produced by New York-based VICE television.
The visit took place amid rising tensions between the countries. North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test two weeks ago, making clear the provocative act was a warning to the US to drop what it considers a “hostile” policy toward the North.
Rodman said he was aware of North Korea’s human-rights record, which the State Department has characterized as one of the worst in the world, but said he wasn’t apologizing for Kim.
“He’s a good guy to me,” Rodman said. “As a person to person, he’s my friend. I don’t condone what he does.”
Basketball is popular in North Korea, and Thursday’s exhibition game with two Americans playing on each team alongside North Koreans ended in a 110-110 tie. Following the game, Kim threw an “epic feast” for the group, making round after round of toasts.
Rodman’s trip was the second attention-grabbing American visit this year to North Korea. Google’s executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, made a four-day trip in January but did not meet with Kim.
Rodman said he planned to go back to North Korea to “find out more what’s really going on.”