Dennis Rodman: Kim Jong Un just wants Obama to call

North Korea leader Kim Jong Un and former NBA player Dennis Rodman attend an exhibition game featuring the Harlem Globetrotters, at an arena in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013. / Vice

WASHINGTON Call me? Maybe?

North Korea's young leader has riled the U.S. with recent nuclear tests, but Kim Jong Un doesn't really want war with the superpower, just a call from President Barack Obama to chat about their shared love of basketball, according to erstwhile diplomat Dennis Rodman, the ex-NBA star just back from an improbable visit to the reclusive communist country.

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Dennis Rodman travels to North Korea

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"He loves basketball. ... I said Obama loves basketball. Let's start there" as a way to warm up relations between U.S. and North Korea, Rodman told ABC's "This Week."

"He asked me to give Obama something to say and do one thing. He wants Obama to do one thing, call him," said Rodman, who called the authoritarian leader an "awesome guy" during his trip. The State Department criticized North Korea last week for "wining and dining" Rodman while its own people go hungry.

Rodman also said Kim told him, "I don't want to do war. I don't want to do war."

Yet in January, after the U.N. Security Council voted to condemn the North's successful rocket launch in December and expand penalties against Kim's government, his National Defense Commission said in a statement that "settling accounts with the U.S. needs to be done with force, not with words." The statement also promised "a new phase of the anti-U.S. struggle that has lasted century after century."

North Korea and the U.S. fought on opposite sides of the three-year Korean War, which ended in a truce in 1953. The foes technically remain at war. They never signed a peace treaty and do not have diplomatic relations.

Rodman was the highest-profile American to meet Kim since Kim inherited power from father Kim Jong Il in 2011. He traveled to the secretive state with the Harlem Globetrotters team for a new HBO series produced by New York-based VICE television.

The visit took place amid rising tensions between the countries.

• Rodman leaves N. Korea, calls Kim "awesome guy"
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North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test two weeks ago, making clear the provocative act was a warning to the United States to drop what it considers a "hostile" policy toward the North.

Rodman said he was aware of North Korea's human rights record, which the State Department has characterized as one of the worst in the world, but said he wasn't apologizing for Kim.

"He's a good guy to me," Rodman said, adding, that "as a person to person, he's my friend. I don't condone what he does."

Basketball is popular in North Korea, and Thursday's exhibition game with two Americans playing on each time alongside North Koreans ended in a 110-110 tie. Following the game Kim threw an "epic feast" for the group, plying them with food and drinks and making round after round of toasts.

Rodman's trip was the second attention-grabbing American visit this year to North Korea. Google's executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, made a four-day trip in January, but did not meet Kim.

Rodman said he planned to go back to North Korea to "find out more what's really going on."

[jjudd64]

"The State Department criticized North Korea last week for "wining and dining" Rodman while its own people go hungry." Sounds like our countries have something in common.I am sick of the idiots in this country. Comments like "the phone works both ways" and "the US already owns the superior position" make me sick. I'm sure N. Korea can just call Obama any time, suuure. And the US power and intimidation does not make us "superior", only more dangerous. I'm not saying I agree with their ways, just that we should look at ourselves if we want to really make a difference! Now for those of you that about to say if I don't like it, move. I wish it was that easy.

[Anonymousforever]

I agree! I would love to add to your comment. Most people love to give their opinion about the DPRK without knowing anything about this country. It's probably better Dennis Rodman wasn't too informed about North Korea's history of Human Rights abuse, this could have made him close minded. More importantly, we should be more concerned with the Communist Party of China. China is known for slaughtering thousands of innocent people a year for expressing their opinions about the government. Is American aware of Falun Gong practitioners who were killed because of their beliefs and sent to prison camps, only to be killed for their organs? The Chinese government blocks everyone from reading about the Falun Gong practitioners mass murders. China also sends all North Koreans back to their country, knowing they will be publically executed. How Ironic, The Chinese government hates America but practically owns the United States. China will do anything to prevent the DPRK and the US from becoming allies. I would much rather take a chance with North Korea than China, any day.

[blindnil]

This is a big advertising push for Vice.com If anyone can't see that for what it is then they are easily duped.

[mrgwr39]

While I don't imagine that anybody really expects Dennis Rodman to be a diplomat he did manage to talk to Kim Jong Un and that is something that nobody else has done. Regardless of how strange Rodman is this is nonetheless an opportunity to at least make an attempt to communicate with Kim Jong Un. Communicating with him does not mean anybody condones his actions it simply means it is an opportunity that cannot be passed up. Whatever he has to say can be evaluated and it can lead to further chances to work with him to somehow bring about some kind of progress in relations. I don't pretend to think this is a reason to be hopeful but it still cannot be passed up. Whatever results from communicating cannot be any worse than what exists now and it certainly will probably be even a little better. I know that Rodman is strange but nonetheless he did talk to the man and that is something. I say this cannot be ignored and cannot be passed upon. A simple phone call may at least provide some insight into what Kim Jong Un is thinking and may give perspective on how to approach dealing with him in the future. We have no real concrete idea of exactly what he plans to do and given the opportunity to at the very least open up communications cannot hurt. Again it is not condoning the policies of North Korea it is simply getting a better handle on his intentions and trying to understand a way to better deal with him. Nothing can be lost in a phone call.

[carlbakersfi]

Maybe Rodman can get a dose of reality by signing up for a stay in one of the prison cities this moron Kim Jong Un continues to run, because he is such a patron of the people. Rodman's jersey number must have been his IQ

[sweetcakesmaria]

Hopefully people inside of our Government is not as closed minded as you appear to be. When Obama initially ran for President, he stated that he would talk to anyone. I would much prefer he not think that he's so high and mighty that he can't talk to other world leaders even if they are perceived to be our enemies if it would prevent young men/women from dying unnecessarily on some far away battlefield. It really doesn't matter how one feels about Dennis Rodman personally. Rodman was in North Korea and did mingle with Kim Jong Un finding him to be a decent man. Un was educated in Switzerland so he's educated and is probably someone who is reasonable enough to realize that war should be avoided at all cost.

Rodman thinks he's accomplishing what here?

Dear Leader jr. wants a call from our President but why when he can invite other luminaires from the sports world such as Micheal Irvin or Bill Romanowski or even (Dare I hope?) Tonya Harding?

[sweetcakesmaria]

So far he has accomplished something that no one in our Government has and that is having a conversation with Kim Jong Un.

[jgg000010]

dennis has more metal in his face than a north korean missile.

[micmac666]

Dennis, you're a tool.

[CoachHouser]

You got that right.
Jimmy Carter like being used in this fashion as well.

[wfw3536]

It is really sad that the national media has made such a big deal out of this story, when thousands of folks in North Korea are being killed and dying yearly because of this leader, and his father, and grandfather.

[jaykay3141]

I'd like to know why there isn't the same kind of outrage felt by people of all political stripes when Hanoi Jane Fonda perched herself on a tank in North Vietnam. As odious as North Vietnam's dictatorship was, it was less of a prison state than the Kim family's paradise. Fonda was (IMHO rightly so) a pariah for years, yet Rodman's pleasure trip is merely being treated like some kind of theater of the absurd.

[6543mike]

We have passed the point of no return. When it becomes news what Dennis Rodman is doing, we are screwed.

[quincytodd]

I have a horrible suspicion that Barack Obama will blighthly ignore this opportunity just like he did the offer he got from Raul Castro back in 2009. I guess that he's too much of a right-winger to do the right thing and call Kim Jong Un!

[Jennifer C Rose]

Opportunity? That phone line works both ways. Using Dennis Rodman to pass along a message to a U.S. President is just insulting to the rest of us. Kim isn't serious, he making fun of us.

The word opportunity implies that progress towards a specified goal whether that progress be positive or negative does not matter) is visible by one or more parties involved in pursuit of obtaining said goal or negating its chance of happening.

This situation is just two enormous egos at the heavy petting zoo working overtime while those watching (myself included) should be doing something else.