NBA Hall of Fame forward Dennis Rodman is headed back to North Korea to "hang out" with his friend, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
According to USA Today, Rodman boarded a flight for Pyongyang Tuesday morning and is projected to land there within hours. The trip marks the colorful Rodman's second visit to the region in the last six months.
Last February, he shocked the world when during a trip there with the Harlem Globetrotters he met and praised the 29-year Jong Un as simply a funny guy and an advent NBA fan.
At Beijing airport on Tuesday, Rodman told USA Today he will "try to bridge a gap with Americans and North Korea," and expects to meet Kim for dinner on Tuesday or Wednesday. But he insisted he will not raise the case of jailed U.S. citizen Kenneth Bae, currently serving a sentence of 15-years of hard labor for committing "hostile acts" towards North Korea.
"I'm not a diplomat," he repeatedly told the newspaper. "I'm going over there to just have a good time with him and his family, that's pretty much it."
According to USA Today, on Friday North Korean authorities forced the last-minute cancellation of a trip to Pyongyang by the U.S. Special Envoy for Human Rights Ambassador Robert King, who had hoped to secure Bae's release on humanitarian grounds. In 2009, former President Bill Clinton famously traveled there to secure the release of journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who were serving 12 years hard labor after crossing the border illegally.
During his last trip there, Kim and his wife treated Rodman and his sizeable entourage to a lavish, liquor-fuelled dinner after they watched basketball together. Rodman, who recently launched his own Vodka label, again expects the liquor to flow on this trip.
"There should be a lot of Bad Boy vodka there already," he jokingly told the newspaper about his brand."They love whisky, they love tequila, they love vodka, stuff like that, so hoping we're going over to have a nice dinner, sit and talk about communication and sports."
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