North Korea Makes News With Dennis Rodman, Fax Machine
The country's military threatens South Korea via fax, while a former NBA star pays a visit.

This is a special report from ABC news Digital.
I’m Mary Bruce in New York and this is an ABC news digital special report. Another busy day on the Korean peninsula, the north has again threatened to strike the south, this time in response to a series of protest against the regime. Meanwhile Dennis Rodman in Ping Yong again, holding tryouts for a basketball team that he says will play an exhibition game against NBA veterans next month on Kim Jong-Un’s birthday. Here’s Rodman talking about his North Korean friends.
This country is pretty cool now, it’s pretty cool, I understand what’s going on with the political stuff, that’s it, I don’t wanna go on that adventure. I was doing one thing for these kids here, and for this country, and for my country, and for the world pretty much.
The whole world does seem to be watching, among those keeping an eye on Rodman, joining us now from Washington, ABC news political director and basketball enthusiast Rick Clan, so Rick, Rodman looking pretty comfortable there today, holding court, putting the North Korean through their paces, is there any evidence anywhere that he’s representing anyone there other than Dennis Rodman?
Warm diplomacy I think is a function entirely of Dennis Rodman’s imagination. He has obviously struck something of a friendship with the North Korean leader, he’s been used before, this is of course not the first trip he’s made to the country. And I think the view in the world community, and certainly from American officials that he is being used as a pawn to paper over the atrocities, the mishandling, some of the recent headlines involving an assassination of the uncle of the current leader, so I think this is Dennis Rodman freelancing, there’s no evidence to suggest that there’s anything other than that. He’s making a number of trips there, and I think in each of these instances, you can see that there’s a sense of propaganda, that’s arouse a lot of it, these photos were a lot different than what you normally see in the news coming out of North Korea.
And Rick, Rodman was asked today how the North Korean players stack up against America’s best, here’s his answer.
You know they have a, I call it European skills, they don’t pass, they don’t do a trickery stuff or wrestle stuff, they loved I when they got stuff like that, they can actually shoot. And that's really, really cool, they can actually shoot. But you know what? You know, no one asks you to be a super star. And now, you know, you gotta go down and work for it.
So Rick, it sounds like the Americans are gonna have to be defending the perimeters. Do we have any idea who if anyone will actually be travelling to Ping Yong and accepting his invitation for that game?
We do not, I’d imagine that we’re only talking about former NBA players, kind of blushed up stars, if anyone Dennis Rodman knows, you see, he even admitted he’s having trouble finding enough man to join him on the trip. I think there’s an understandable fear about travelling to the country, so finding a former NBA star who’s willing to make that trip and be part of sir Rodman’s entourage, sir Rodman was a quirky guy when he was a player to say the least, and now as a post player, and I think any assessor in North Korean’s sports has to remember again the propaganda in these things, the current leader’s father Kim Jong-il, he actually was said to have completed a round of golf once in 18 strokes, all holes in one. So I don’t know that we can have an objective analysis of exactly how good North Korean basketball is.
Now Rick, of course the white house has said it had nothing to do with Rodman’s trip, but isn’t that exactly what they would say even if they did?
Ah, the conspiracy theories began over and over again, yeah, I know, I think that there’s a little bit of deniability here that seems plausible to me, only in that I can’t imagine Dennis Rodman passing any kind of CIA background check, I think if he was being used as some kind of secretive operative, I have no doubt the Americans are very interested in what he’s learned over there, and they may even wanna talk to him and to other people that had travelled with him, but the idea of Dennis Rodman as a secret undercover agent for the United States government seems to me a little bit out of the realm of the likely.
Now this spectacle of side, of course, the North Koreans have issued a very serious threat to the south, sending a message via fax of course to Soul earlier today, in response to a series of very angry protest there against the regime in the north, but how seriously does the white house take this kind of thing?
Well, that’s just it, and that’s where the Rodman diplomacy is potentially harmful from the America perspective, is that this isn’t a time to try, to engage in photo ops and humanizing elements of what the regime is doing in North Korea. This is serious bluster, and every time a country with nuclear weapon makes these kind of noises about a neighbor, American officials have always thought that current regime is unstable, there isn’t a current strong foothold on power, you have a leader trying to establish himself, so the fact that he’s trying to establish himself and establish himself in the international community and back at home with visits like Mr. Rodman’s, and those of potentially other NBA players, none of those things that are welcome to people that are worried about how close their finger is to the nuclear button.
ABC news political director Rick Clan, thank you very much.
Thanks Mary.
For a full report on all things, Rodman and the latest on the North Korean threat, stay right here on ABCnews.com this is ABC news digital report, I’m Mary Bruce in New York.