Post date: Sep 03, 2013 12:46:15 PM
Former U.S. basketball star Dennis Rodman arrives for his second visit to North Korea this year, saying he is not (not) there to try to negotiate the release of a jailed American missionary.
PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA (SEPTEMBER 3, 2013) (KRT) - Former U.S. basketball star Dennis Rodman arrived in North Korea on Tuesday (September 3) for a five-day visit, his second this year and said he had no plans to try to negotiate the release of a jailed American missionary.
There had been media speculation that Rodman would try to secure the freedom of Kenneth Bae, who has been jailed for 15 years after being convicted of trying to overthrow the Pyongyang government.Rodman's latest trip is being sponsored by an Irish bookmaker and he said en route that he was going to meet his friend Kim and possibly help start a basketball league.
Rodman met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on his first trip this year, filming a documentary in March, at a time when Pyongyang was threatening the United States, South Korea and Japan with missile strikes. The American then called Kim, who rules unchallenged in a country where there are an estimated 150,000-200,000 prisoners in work camps, "an awesome kid".
Kim, 30-years-old and the third of his line to rule North Korea, is a basketball fan and appeared to get on well with Rodman on the earlier visit, when the pair were pictured laughing, eating and drinking together and watching a match.
North Korean state-run television KRT on Tuesday showed video of Rodman being welcomed atPyongyang airport, but did not provide any details of the trip.
Last week, North Korea cancelled a planned visit by U.S. special envoy Robert King to try to negotiate Bae's release, blaming annual military exercises involving the United States and South Korea.
Bae, a Korean-American who had been working as a Christian missionary in China and North Korea, was arrested in the northeast port of Rason late last year.
The North Korean Supreme Court sentenced him to 15 years hard labour for plotting to overthrow the state. It said he had secretly brought "propaganda materials", including a National Geographicdocumentary on life in North Korea, into the country.
Bae, who trained with the organisation Youth With a Mission, ran a tour group in China called Nation Tours that specialised in trips to North Korea.
North Korea says it permits religious freedom, but in practice the expression of religion is tightly controlled.