By Rob Quinn
Possibly for the first and only time, Jimmy Carter and Dennis Rodman share a common goal: securing the release of Kenneth Bae , the Korean-American tour guide serving a 15-year sentence for allegedly trying to bring down North Korea’s government. The ex-president—who succeeded in a similar mission in 2010 —plans… …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
You remember that former NBA star, Dennis Rodman, traveled to North Korea in February and met with the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, right? The two of them took in a basketball game together. Afterwards, Rodman called Kim a “good guy” and “a friend.” The White House was initially not too happy with Rodman’s jaunt, which was sponsored by Vice Media, but the U.S. government as a whole didn’t seem too interested in the event.
From: http://www.forbes.com/sites/monteburke/2013/04/17/what-the-fbi-should-have-asked-dennis-rodman/
By ESPN.com news services Dennis Rodman says the FBI wants to talk to him about North Korea.
From: http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/9181493/dennis-rodman-says-fbi-asks-info-north-korea
By The Huffington Post News Editors
The mounting tensions in North Korea have produced relatively few optimists of late, but rest assured that Dennis Rodman can be counted among them.
In an interview with Gossip Extra, the star rebounder made clear his plans to return to North Korea in August, so that he and “supreme leader” Kim Jong Un can you know, “just hang and have some fun.”
It’s an all-but-sure thing that any unofficial sojourns to North Korea would be precluded by say, nuclear conflict, but at the moment it appears that, in the mind of the Worm, international sanctions and threats of war stand aside for “basketball diplomacy.” Although, seeing how he reportedly leaked confirmation that Kim Jong Un has a daughter, a major state secret in North Korea, Rodman still has a bit to learn about being diplomatic.
Read More…
More on North Korea
North Korea‘s increasing hostility toward the rest of the world doesn’t seem to faze dictator Kim Jong Un‘s newest best friend Dennis Rodman, who reiterated his plans to return to the communist nation in August.
The former U.S. basketball star said at a charity event in Miami Beach over the weekend that he’s keeping plans to visit North Korea again in late summer to have “fun” with the country’s dictator, the website “Gossip Extra” reported.
“I’m going back August 1,” he told the website. “We have no plans really, as far as what we’re going to do over there, but we’ll just hang and have some fun!”
Rodman raised eyebrows when he became the first American to meet the reclusive young leader in a visit to Pyongyang in February.
Weeks after the controversial visit, Rodman, 51, described Kim as a friend.
“I don’t condone what he does, but he’s my friend,” Rodman said in a March interview with North Dakota’s KXJB. Rodman continued to say he will be “vacationing” with Kim in August.
Rodman’s remarks come amid rising tensions between North Korea and the United States, after the Asian nation threatened to launch a preemptive nuclear attack on the U.S. that would engulf Washington in a “sea of fire.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry last week wrapped up a tour to coordinate Washington’s response with Beijing, North Korea‘s most important ally, as well as with Seoul and Tokyo.
In Seoul, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin told a parliamentary committee Monday that North Korea still appeared poised to launch a missile from its east coast, though he declined to disclose the source of his information.
Kerry warned North Korea not to conduct a missile test, saying it would be provocation that “will raise people’s temperatures” and further isolate the country and its impoverished people. He said Sunday that the U.S. was “prepared to reach out,” but that Pyongyang must first bring down tensions and honor previous agreements.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/national/~3/H1wG5pOhggA/
NEW YORK, April 8 (UPI) — Former basketball player Dennis Rodman became the latest contestant fired from the all-stars edition of “The Celebrity Apprentice” in New York.
By The Huffington Post News Editors
NEW YORK — On Saturday morning, The New York Times ran a front-page photo of a mass rally in Pyongyang, one of few recent images to originate from the North Korean capital as leader Kim Jong Un once again beats the drums of war.
The Associated Press photo, among several taken Friday, was also splashed across The Huffington Post and published by dozens of news outlets. As the only western news outlet with a bureau in Pyongyang, the AP has a clear advantage on covering such events, and the photos taken Friday by the AP’s Jon Chol Jin — a North Korean journalist in his mid-20s who previously worked for state media there — accompanied numerous reports in recent days.
The latest standoff, complete with threats from North Korae of pre-emptive nuclear strikes against South Korea and the United States, has once again exposed the difficulty of reporting from a country that offers nearly no press access — unless perhaps accompanied by Dennis Rodman.
Read More…
More on North Korea
By Bruce Dorminey, Contributor
A month after Dennis Rodman returned from his much-publicized visit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, I’m still mystified by the whole episode. Rodman, the renowned NBA rebounder, was arguably blatantly used by one of the world’s worst despots, then came home to talk about it in front of a nation now fixated on March Madness brackets. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Getty
…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at AOL
By Evann Gastaldo 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
By John Johnson 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Great Finds
After raising eyebrows by going to North Korea, former U.S. basketball star Dennis Rodman is continuing his bizarre global tour by visiting Rome — purportedly to help Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana become the first black pope.
But Rodman didn’t seem too sure who he was supposed to be promoting when asked about it Wednesday. “From Africa right?” Rodman asked, wearing a hat and T-shirt promoting the Irish betting firm that organized his trip.
Rodman said he was sure the next pope would be black and that he would like to meet him in Africa on his self-styled mission to promote world peace.
Even Rodman’s plans to enter St. Peter’s Square in a custom-built “pope-mobile” were uncertain Wednesday: The vehicle had been delayed by snow in northern Italy.
Fresh off the heels of his controversial meeting with Kim Jong Un, former basketball star Dennis Rodman says he will return to North Korea in August to “vacation” with the country’s leader.
Rodman became the first American to meet the reclusive young leader in a visit to Pyongyang last month. In an interview with North Dakota’s KXJB, Rodman, 51, described Kim as a friend.
“I don’t condone what he does, but he’s my friend,” Rodman said. Rodman continued to say he will be “vacationing” with Kim in August.
Rodman’s remarks come amid rising tensions between North Korea and the United States, after the Asian nation threatened to launch a preemptive nuclear attack on the U.S. that would engulf Washington in a “sea of fire.”
The U.S. conducted joint military drills with South Korea on Monday, prompting a North Korean paper to report the armistice that ended the Korean War had been nullified, as Kim urged front-line troops to be on “maximum alert” for a potential war.
Kim told artillery troops stationed near disputed waters that have seen several bloody clashes in past years that “war can break out right now,” according to a report by North Korean state media.
Meanwhile, Rodman has turned his focus to Rome and the election of a new pope. According to the Associated Press, Rodman is expected to arrive in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday in a makeshift popemobile as he campaigns for Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana to become the church’s first black pope.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
By John Johnson 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
By Matt Cantor 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
By Matt Cantor 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
By Evann Gastaldo 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
After Google chairman Eric Schmidt and former NBA star Dennis Rodman, the notorious file-sharing site The Pirate Bay is claiming to be the latest unexpected visitor to Stalinist North Korea. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
By Evann Gastaldo 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
There’s a new Kim in town.
South Korea ended months of speculation by verifying that the wife of North Korea‘s dynastic dictator Kim Jong Un secretly gave birth late last year. The newborn, whose gender is not known, could become the fourth-generation to lead the communist dictatorship but Pyongyang watchers believe the baby is most likely a girl.
“If it was a boy, [the North Koreans] would have made an announcement,” Michael Madden, editor of the online newsletter North Korea Leadership Watch, told the Washington Free Beacon.
Kim’s wife, Ri Sol-ju, was rumored to be pregnant after official photos showed what intelligence analysts said appeared to be a baby bump. She is widely seen as a rising force in the Pyongyang leadership hierarchy and believed to have a strong influence on her husband, who inherited the reins when his father, Kim Jong Il, died in late 2011 after a 17-year run.
The birth of the latest Kim is considered significant because the communist regime in Pyongyang has evolved from a Soviet-installed Marxist-Leninist regime in the 1950s to an Asian family dynasty where the ruling communist Workers Party shares power with a powerful military clique.
Kim Jong Un, who last week hung out with guest and former NBA star Dennis Rodman, has ratcheted up the saber-rattling his father was known for, with multiple tests of nuclear weapons and missiles, as well as the release of several provocative videos depicting the U.S. under attack. Rodman, who went to North Korea with the Harlem Globetrotters and an HBO camera crew, raved about the dictator, who lives in lavish luxury while most of the people in his nation are starving.
On Sunday, Rodman told ABC‘s George Stephanopoulos that the diminutive dictator who recently threatened Washington with “miserable destruction” wants President Obama to call him.
“He said, ‘If you can, Dennis – I don’t want [to] do war. I don’t want to do war.’ He said that to me,” Rodman told the network.
Although Rodman‘s resume is heavy on rebounds and reality TV and light on diplomacy, the mere fact that he spent time with Kim Jong Un makes him unique in the west.
“There is nobody at the CIA who can tell you more personally about Kim Jong Un than Dennis Rodman, and that in itself is scary,” Col. Steve Ganyard, former deputy assistant secretary of state, told ABC.
Rodman did not mention Ri, who is believed to be a singer who has broken tradition by appearing in public in short skirts with expensive jewelry. Wives of Kim Johng Un‘s father and grandfather were rarely seen in public.
Ri is believed to be in her early 20s. Defectors say she was trained as a singer and met the future leader in 2010. Kim placed her in his favorite band, the Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble, with whom she performed in late 2010 before then-leader Kim Jong-Il.
