SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Ex-NBA star Dennis Rodman met North Korea's
Kim Jong Un on Thursday on the third day of his improbable journey to
Pyongyang, telling the leader "You have a friend for life," a delegation
spokesman said.
Rodman and Kim sat side by side at an exhibition
game in Pyongyang, chatting as they watched players from North Korea and
the U.S. play on mixed teams, Alex Detrick, a spokesman for the New
York-based VICE media company, told The Associated Press.
Kim, a diehard basketball fan, told Rodman he hoped
the visit would break the ice between the United States and North
Korea, Detrick said. Kim later invited the Americans to dinner.
The encounter makes Rodman the most high-profile
American to meet with the young North Korean leader since Kim took power
in December 2011, and takes place against a backdrop of tension between
Washington and Pyongyang.
North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test
just two weeks ago, making clear the provocative act was aimed at
sending a warning to the United States to drop what it considers a
"hostile" policy toward the North. The two countries fought each other
during the Korean War, and do not have diplomatic relations.
Rodman arrived in Pyongyang on Monday with three
members of the professional Harlem Globetrotters basketball team, VICE
correspondent Ryan Duffy and a VICE production crew to shoot a
documentary for a new HBO TV series.
The surprise visit by the flamboyant Hall of Famer
known as "The Worm" makes him an unlikely ambassador at a time when
North Koreans are girding for battle with the U.S. Just last week, Kim
guided frontline troops in military exercises.
The Korean War ended in a truce in 1953, and the two foes never signed a peace treaty.
Thursday's game in a packed gymnasium ended in a
110-110 draw, with two Americans playing on each team alongside North
Koreans, Detrick said.
After the game, Rodman addressed Kim in a speech
before a crowd of tens of thousands of North Koreans, telling him, "You
have a friend for life," Detrick said.
The leader later plied the group with liquor, according to VICE TV producer Jason Mojica.
"Um ... so Kim Jong Un just got the (hash)VICEonHBO
crew wasted ... no really, that happened," Mojica wrote on his Twitter
feed from Pyongyang.
Duffy later invited Kim to visit the United States,
a proposal met with hearty laughter from the North Korean leader,
Detrick said.
