Dennis Rodman back in North Korea with basketball, not Bae, on agenda

By artappraiser on Tue, 09/03/2013 - 3:43pm |

By Chuck Schilken, "Sports Now" @ Latimes.com, September 3, 2013

A week after saying he could become "the most powerful guy in the world" by negotiating the release of jailed U.S. citizen Kenneth Bae, former NBA star Dennis Rodman seems to have lowered the expectations for his latest trip to North Korea considerably.

Before catching a flight to Pyongyang to start a five-day visit Tuesday, Rodman told Reuters in a telephone interview from Beijing: "I'm not going to North Korea to discuss freeing Kenneth Bae. I've come out here to see my friend -- and I want to talk about basketball."

The friend he's referring to is a rather controversial one -- North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un [....]

URL:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-dennis-rodman-north-korea-20130903,0,657669.story#axzz2drOdD86H