Former NBA star Dennis Rodman has returned to North Korea to visit his good buddy/dictator/leader of one of the world’s most oppressive regimes, Kim Jong Un. Despite America’s renewed tensions with the reclusive government, Rodman claims to have no diplomatic agenda for the trip, saying, “I just want to meet my friend Kim, the marshal, and start a basketball league over there or something like that.” Kim Jong Un currently presides over a government that holds hundreds of thousands in secret prison camps where torture, starvation and mass executions are commonplace.
Last week, the North Korean government heartbreakingly rescinded an invitation to a U.S. envoy to come and retrieve American Christian missionary Kenneth Bae, who has been held for unspecified crimes since November. Bae, who experts say was actually caught taking pictures to raise awareness about the plight of North Korean orphans, is reportedly in declining health and in desperate need of medical attention, but Rodman’s not letting that sour his trip, saying “I’m not going to North Korea to discuss freeing Kenneth Bae. I’m just going there on another basketball diplomacy tour.” In the past, the country has used American prisoners as a way to convince high-profile leaders (including former Presidents Carter and Clinton) to visit the country and secure their release …