An emotional Dennis Rodman appeared to break down yesterday as he apologized on his return from a controversial trip to North Korea, where he sang Happy Birthday to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
The former NBA star was widely criticized for refusing to bring up human rights abuses or the plight of a US missionary detained in North Korea during his week-long visit.
The former Chicago Bulls player was also accused of pandering to North Korean authorities during the trip, which featured an exhibition basketball match involving other NBA stars to mark Kim’s birthday.
Photo: AFP
“I love my country, America, I love it and I will never trade it for nothing in the world,” the pierced and heavily tattooed Rodman told reporters at Beijing airport.
Former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson has described Rodman’s actions as “treason.”
Rodman said he wanted to “show people that no matter what is going on in the world, for one day... not politics, not all this stuff...” before launching into an apology.
“I am sorry. I am not the president. I am not an ambassador. I am Dennis Rodman. Just an individual, just showing the world the fact that we can actually get along and be happy for one day,” Rodman said, before his voice broke and he put his hands to his face.
He was ushered through a heavy media presence by security and his entourage, which includes Joseph Terwilliger, a bearded tuba-playing neuroscience professor from Columbia University in New York.
Rodman has developed an unlikely relationship with the young North Korean leader since making his first trip there in February, when he declared Kim a “friend for life.”
The former power forward, who was wearing dark glasses, a blue tracksuit top and orange scarf, was asked whether he raised the issue of Kenneth Bae, who was detained by North Korean authorities.
In an interview with CNN last week, Rodman delivered an angry tirade in which he appeared to suggest that the missionary merited his 15-year prison sentence.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t do anything,” Rodman said, in comments echoing those of his publicist last week.
“I’m sorry, it’s not my fault. I’m sorry... I just want to do some good stuff, that’s all I want to do, basketball, that’s all,” he added.
Rodman was returning from his fourth visit to the reclusive state in 12 months.
“It is amazing that I had the opportunity just to go to North Korea, and for the Marshal [Kim] just to give me an opportunity just to be in his presence and in his city,” he said, adding that he would visit the North again next month for “another game.”
Kim, who was educated in Switzerland, is reported to be a huge fan of basketball and especially of the Chicago Bulls, with whom Rodman won three NBA titles alongside Michael Jordan in the 1990s.
Bae was arrested in November 2012 as he entered Rason, a port in the northeast of the hardline Communist state.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in