NBA Star Rodman Asked to Reconsider North Korea Trip

NBA Chicago Bull’s star, Dennis Rodman, has made yet another controversial trip to North Korea, and this time he hopes to lay the ground for an exhibition basketball game in Pyongyang featuring NBA veterans early next month. Rodman is aiming to hold tryouts for local North Korean players to play against the visiting Americans and will offer each selected player a new pair of sneakers.

Besides the millions of Americans who are against Rodman’s growing relationship with the young North Korean leader who has been described as ‘manic’ by political observers, plenty of North Korean activists – including former labor camp inhabitants – have also voiced their disgust at Rodman’s trips.

One activist in particular wrote a chilling letter to Rodman, telling him about himself and his horrific life as a prisoner in Camp 14.

“On orders of the guards in Camp 14, inmates are forced to marry and create children to be raised by guards to be disposable slaves,” he wrote in his letter to Rodman. “Until I escaped in 2005, I was one of those slaves. My body is covered with scars from torture I endured in the camp.”

Rodman continues to insist that his visits to Kim Jong Un are a way to bridge cultural gaps and spread goodwill between the two countries.

Slamming the critics over this latest trip, Rodman said in a recent statement to Associated Press:

“You know, they’re still afraid to come here, but I’m just telling them, you know, don’t be afraid man, it’s all love, it’s all love here. I understand what’s going on with the political stuff, and I say, I don’t go into that venture, I’m just doing one thing for these kids here, and for this country, and for my country, and for the world pretty much.”