Former NBA bad boy Dennis Rodman said on Tuesday that he is “just trying to open a door” by going to North Korea in his first visit since President Donald Trump took office.
Rodman, who has made several trips to the country, sported a black T-shirt advertising a marijuana cybercurrency as he headed toward immigration at Beijing airport, from where he is expected to fly to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.
Asked if he had spoken to U.S. President Donald Trump about his trip, he said: “Well, I’m pretty sure he’s pretty much happy with the fact that I’m over here trying to accomplish something that we both need.”
Mr. Rodman has received the red-carpet treatment on each of his past visits but has been roundly criticised for doing so during a time of high tensions between the U.S. and North Korea over the latter’s weapons programmes.
In this undated photo published on September 7, 2013, on the homepage of North Korea’s “Rodong Sinmun” newspaper, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un talks with former NBA player Dennis Rodman during a dinner in North Korea.
Mr. Rodman said the issue of several Americans currently detained by North Korea is “not my purpose right now”.
In Tokyo, a visiting senior U.S. official said Mr. Rodman’s trip is as a private citizen.
“We are aware of his visit. We wish him well, but we have issued travel warnings to Americans suggested they not travel to North Korea for their own safety,” U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon told reporters after discussing the North Korea missile threat and other issues with Japanese counterparts.
In 2014, Mr. Rodman arranged a basketball game with other former NBA players and North Koreans and regaled leader Kim Jong-un with a rendition of “Happy Birthday”. On the same trip, he suggested an American missionary was at fault for his own imprisonment in North Korea, remarks for which he later apologised.
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un talks with former NBA player Dennis Rodman as they watch an exhibition basketball game at an indoor stadium in Pyongyang on January 8, 2014 .
A Foreign Ministry official who spoke to the AP in Pyongyang confirmed Mr. Rodman was expected to arrive on Tuesday but could not provide details. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the Ministry had not issued a formal statement. CNN reported earlier that Mr. Rodman was at the Beijing airport.
Any visit by a high-profile American is a political minefield and Mr. Rodman has been criticised for failing to use his influence on leaders who are otherwise isolated diplomatically from the rest of the world.
Mr. Rodman tweeted that his trip was being sponsored by Potcoin, one of a growing number of cybercurrencies used to buy and sell marijuana in state-regulated markets.
North Korea has been hailed by marijuana news outlets and British tabloids as a pothead paradise and maybe even the next Amsterdam of pot tourism. But the claim that marijuana is legal in North Korea is not true — The penal code lists it as a controlled substance in the same category as cocaine and heroin.
Americans have been sentenced to years in North Korean prisons for such seemingly minor offenses as stealing a political banner and likely could not expect leniency if the country’s drug laws were violated.
