Former NBA player Dennis Rodman serenades N. Korean leader Kim Jong Un on his birthday

[Lasher]

Source: Washingon Post

SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un celebrated his 31st birthday on Wednesday by watching a basketball game that was played in his honor and featured players from the country Kim has often threatened to obliterate.

The game had elements of comedy and farce. According to news reports, high-profile former National Basketball Association player Dennis Rodman bowed to Kim, whom he has called a “friend for life,” before tip-off, and serenaded him with “Happy Birthday.”

<snip>

Rodman tried to explain himself in an interview with CNN that aired Tuesday. But his exchange with anchor Chris Cuomo quickly turned contentious, as Cuomo pressed him about Bae. “I don’t give a rat’s ass what the hell you think,” a sputtering Rodman finally said in one of the only coherent sentences he could muster.

Rodman seemed to suggest that Bae had done something that merited punishment, though he did not specify what. Bae, a tour operator from Washington state, has been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor on charges of trying to overthrow the North Korean government.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/former-nba-player-dennis-rodman-serenades-n-korean-leader-kim-jong-un-on-his-birthday/2014/01/08/37137de0-7863-11e3-a647-a19deaf575b3_story.html

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Dennis Rodman 'playing games' with imprisoned American's life, family says

(CNN) -- Dennis Rodman is "playing games" with the life of jailed American Kenneth Bae, the imprisoned man's sister said Wednesday.

"There is no diplomacy, only games, and at my brother's expense," Bae's sister, Terri Chung, said in a statement released by the family a day after the onetime basketball star made headlines by intimating that Bae's imprisonment in North Korea was deserved.

In an appearance Wednesday on CNN's "New Day," Chung said she was shocked by Rodman's statements the day before to CNN's Chris Cuomo, in which the basketball player suggested Bae had done something wrong to warrant being in prison.

"I'm not sure where he's getting his information and I'm not sure how much credence I would give to his outburst," she said.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/08/world/asia/north-korea-dennis-rodman/?hpt=hp_t2

[global1]

1. I Posted This In Another Thread About Rodman And Thought I Should Again Post It Here.....

Who's To Say That Kim Jong Un's Position On HIs Country Is Not Moderating In Some Way.....

We already know that he's done away with his uncle and with it probably the hard line influence left over from his father's reign. Perhaps Rodman is having some effect on this - perhaps not. But I'm not going to criticize Rodman just yet.

Who knows - maybe in some strange way this is 'basketball diplomacy' and in some strange way it might be having some influence on Un.

Remember this:

Ping-pong diplomacy (Chinese: 乒乓外交 Pīngpāng wàijiāo) refers to the exchange of table tennis (ping-pong) players between the United States and People's Republic of China (PRC) in the early 1970s. The event marked a thaw in U.S.–China relations that paved the way to a visit to Beijing by President Richard Nixon.

I just think we should hold back our criticism of Rodman for the moment and see where this might take us.

CNN is certainly making hay out of this interview. But in fact today I heard Cuomo say to Bae's sister that maybe we should thank Rodman for getting Bae's story back out in the mainstream media where it can be talked about again and attention be brought to it.

Stranger things have happened.

[Ranchemp.]

2. OMFG!!!!!

You're actually defending this MORON?
Rodman sounded like he was,
1. Drunk
2. Stoned

This idiotic MORON is too fucking stupid to realize that Kim "bat shit crazy" Un is using him.

[ET Awful]

3. Nah, he's not crazy, he's CIA

Talk about a great cover

[Ranchemp.]

4. Interesting theory.

If true, this would be one of the CIA's better covert ops.

[lastlib]

5. "Drunk/stoned"--his natural state.

when this freak gets high, his crazy level is just astonishing.

[calguy]

7. If your name is Rodman

You'll do just about anything for attention or money. Face it, there just isn't much of demand for the services of former NBA lunatics in this country these days.

[davidpdx]

9. That is a dead on perfect description of how he sounded

They played a clip on AC 360 and most of the panel said he's crazy.

[davidpdx]

10. As long as he is holding people in concentration camps

and putting people there for "crimes against the state" along with three generations of their families, then there is no moderation.

I urge you to read books on North Korea, go to Youtube and watch documentaries (there are several), and go to the websites that have satellite photos of the expansion of the gulags. What is going on there is worse than Americans can imagine as our media rarely covers the humanitarian aspect of North Korea.

I will tell you this, I had hope too once Kim Jong Il died that his successor would change things. From what I've seen in the first couple of years after he died that is not happening. Since coming to Korea 10 years ago, I have been involved with a group Rescue North Korea and their sister group Liberty in North Korea. A few years ago I had the chance to listen to refugees talk about the situation in their country and it was so deeply disturbing.

As for the basketball diplomacy, if they had released Bae maybe I'd buy it. Rodman is a crackpot and crazier than a loon.

[Mojo Electro]

6. Jeebus H Crackers

The dude has gone completely off the deep end.

[nilesobek]

8. Rodman's head could end up on a pike

on display or they could be real, "friends."