BEIJING – Former NBA star Dennis Rodman, the only foreigner with access to North Korea’s reclusive dictator Kim Jong Un, returned from Pyongyang Monday defending his controversial “basketball diplomacy” there.
Americans and North Koreans “can actually get along,” said Rodman, who apologized he “couldn’t do anything” about Kenneth Bae, a Korean American missionary imprisoned in North Korea.
Rodman will return to Pyongyang in about a month for another game of basketball, he said, following the exhibition game last Wednesday between a North Korean team and a Rodman-led team of a team of ex-NBA players and current streetballers.
The ex-Chicago Bulls forward sang ‘happy birthday’ to Kim before tip-off, and spent the second half sitting beside his “friend for life”, reported to be a Chicago Bulls fan.
Rights groups and U.S. politicians have criticized Rodman for engaging with the North’s repressive regime. While in Pyongyang, he was forced to apologize for comments last week that blamed Bae for his own incarceration.
At Beijing airport Monday, at the end of his fourth trip to Pyongyang over the past 12 months, Rodman said “I’m sorry that I couldn’t do anything”, when asked if had raised Bae’s case with Kim.
In a statement released on Thursday, former NBA player and current BFF to North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Un, Dennis Rodman apologized for the freak show performance he displayed in an interview with CNN.
“I want to first apologise to Kenneth Bae’s family. I embarrassed a lot of people. “I’m very sorry. At this point I should know better than to make political statements. I’m truly sorry.”
Rodman blamed his outburst on drinking, stating that some of the other players he brought to North Korea were feeling pressure from back home and were preparing to leave.
In the game they played against North Korea on Wednesday, Rodman played the first half of the game, changed, then watched the rest of the game with his new best friend, Kim.
Jay Carney, the President’s press secretary didn’t actually say whatever dude, but he could have. When Carney responded to Rodman CNN outburst, he basically dismissed the nose-ring wearing nutcase.
“I’m not going to dignify that outburst with a response,” Carney said at as his daily press briefing. He repeated the Obama administration’s position that the communist country has the choice to “join the community of nations” or will face further sanctions and isolation “because of its insistence upon using its resources to fund its military program and fund its nuclear ambitions.”
During the CNN interview, host Chris Cuomo asked Rodman if he would speak up for Bae’s family and “say, ‘Let us know why this man is being held?’ If you can help him, will you take the opportunity?”
The eccentric hoops star began to raise his voice, responding, “The one thing about politics, Kenneth Bae did one thing…If you understand what Kenneth Bae did. Do you understand what he did? In this country?” Rodman seemed to suggest Bae did something wrong but would not go into detail.
Bae, who was in North Korea as a tourist in 2012, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for alleged anti-government crimes. The punishment came amid high tensions between the U.S. and North Korea following Pyongyang’s third nuclear test. The White House has repeatedly urged North Korea to release Bae, a Christian missionary who was living in China and leading tours to North Korea.
I have no words for this, except… Prozac… and maybe if he removed that lip ring, the words would come out better… but, I have no words…except, Prozac… maybe…!
Hall of Fame basketball player Dennis Rodman arrived in North Korea Monday with a team of former NBA players in tow as part of the next step of his program of so-called “basketball diplomacy.”
Taking his by-now customary route, Rodman arrived in Pyongyang via Beijing Monday with a squad of a dozen former basketball stars, including Vin Baker and Cliff Robinson, despite criticism from U.S. officials.
The U.S. players are to compete in an exhibition game against a North Korean team on Wednesday, the birthday of North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un.
“It’s about trying to connect two countries together in the world, to let people know that: Do you know what? Not every country in the world is that bad, especially North Korea,” Rodman told The Associated Press in an interview outside his hotel before heading to the Beijing airport with the team.
“People say so many negative things about North Korea. And I want people in the world to see it’s not that bad.”
When a reporter from Sky News suggested to Rodman that he had a responsibility to raise the issue of human rights as the only American with such access to the North Korea leader, Rodman responded “That’s not my job. The only thing I am doing right now, I am only doing one thing: this game is for his birthday. It’s for his birthday.
“And I hope that if this opens doors and we can actually talk about certain things, then we can do certain things, but I am not going to sit there and go in and say ‘Hey guy, you’re doing the wrong thing.’
“That’s not the right thing to do. He’s my friend first. He’s my friend. I don’t give a (expletive). I tell the world: he’s my (expletive) friend, I love him.”
And he swears his trip has nothing to do with requesting the freedom of Kenneth Bae, an imprisoned missionary whose health has deteriorated recently.
The former basketball star Dennis Rodman returned Tuesday to North Korea, where he plans “to see my friend” Kim Jong-un, the dictator whose country until recently was threatening to annihilate the United States with nuclear weapons.
Mr. Rodman said in Beijing that he was planning a five-day visit to the North but played down speculation that he would try to secure the release of Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American Christian missionary who has been jailed there since late last year after being detained on North Korean soil.
“I’m not going to North Korea to discuss freeing Kenneth Bae,” Mr. Rodman, a Basketball Hall of Fame member, told Reuters in a telephone interview. “I’m just going there on another basketball diplomacy tour.”
Kim Jong-un’s ex-girlfriend was among a dozen well-known North Korean performers who were executed by firing squad on Aug. 20, reports said Wednesday.
Sources in China said singer Hyon Song-wol as well as Mun Kyong-jin, head of the Unhasu Orchestra, were arrested on Aug. 17 for violating North Korean laws against pornography and were executed in public three days later.
The victims of the atrocity were members of the Unhasu Orchestra as well as singers, musicians and dancers with the Wangjaesan Light Music Band.
They were accused of videotaping themselves having sex and selling the videos. The tapes have apparently gone on sale in China as well.
A source said some allegedly had Bibles in their possession, and all were treated as political dissidents.
Kim met Hyon about a decade ago, before either of them was married. But he was later ordered to break off the relationship by his father Kim Jong-il and she married a soldier. Since then there have been rumors that the two were having an affair.
Kim’s wife Ri Sol-ju was also a member of the Unhasu Orchestra before she married him. Whether she had any hand in the executions is unclear. The Unhasu Orchestra and Wangjaesan Light Music Band have apparently been disbanded due to the latest scandal.
The North Korean leader is ramping up his war game to the point of no return. He has now approved a nuclear attack on the U.S.
SEOUL — North Korea dramatically escalated its warlike rhetoric on Thursday, warning that it had authorised plans for nuclear strikes on targets in the United States.
“The moment of explosion is approaching fast,” the North Korean military said, warning that war could break out “today or tomorrow”.
Pyongyang’s latest pronouncement came as Washington scrambled to reinforce its Pacific missile defences, preparing to send ground-based interceptors to Guam and dispatching two Aegis class destroyers to the region.
Tension was also high on the North’s heavily fortified border with South Korea, after Kim Jong-Un’s isolated regime barred South Koreans from entering a Seoul-funded joint industrial park on its side of the frontier.
In a statement published by the state KCNA news agency, the Korean People’s Army general staff warned Washington that US threats would be “smashed by… cutting-edge smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike means”.
Look at you… standing over there in the corner scratching your head looking all confused. You actually thought the craziness in North Korea died the day the supreme leader died? Shocking! I’m totally amazed at you!
The late supreme leader left behind supreme leader number 2 – Kim Jong Un. Mr. Crazy himself! Yes, he is the same man Dennis Rodman called, “a good guy.” Well today’s news is saturated with claims that “the good guy” has set his target and his target is here… the United States of America… more specifically, Washington DC.!
At a mass rally in Pyongyang on Thursday, Army Gen. Kang Pyo Yong told the crowd that North Korea is ready to fire long-range nuclear-armed missiles at Washington.
“Intercontinental ballistic missiles and various other missiles, which have already set their striking targets, are now armed with lighter, smaller and diversified nuclear warheads and are placed on a standby status,” Kang said. “When we shell (the missiles), Washington, which is the stronghold of evils, …. will be engulfed in a sea of fire.”
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice reacted to the warnings Thursday, saying North Korea will “achieve nothing” with threats and provocations.
The U.N. Security Council unanimously endorsed a fourth round of sanctions against Pyongyang in a fresh attempt to rein in its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Is it wrong to love my computer? Well, I do, and its not a confession that I make easily.
There’s been much doubt cast as to whether a relationship between man and computer can be a healthy one. Look what happened in the “Matrix”.
But while I can go on record that My Computer has shown a lot more love and compassion for me than most guys I’ve dated, its not the only reason I’ve become enamored by it. After all, who gets turned on by you with just one touch? Who can take you to fantastic places all around, money’s no object? Who opens up to you and tells you everything you need to know about themselves? Huh? Who, when they’ve caught a virus, does their best not to infect you, working quietly, diligently in the background; no fussin, no groanin, no cryin’, all to make themselves well enough again to come back to you? Who can show you and tell you things you’ve never seen or heard before? Who does that!?
Hey, If loving my PC is wrong, then I don’t wanna be right!
Maybe I should think again about getting that dog?… ♥
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Showing how ineffective an embargo can sometimes be, this Tuesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, just in time for an upcoming 30th birthday, completed a 3rd round of nuke testing in his state.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said Washington and its allies intends to “augment the sanctions regime” already in place due to North Korea’s past non-compliance to shut it down.
North Korea is already one of the most heavily sanctioned states in the world with barely any economic links to to block resulting in much impoverishment there.
The test were reportedly in defiance to US sanctions already in place for N. Korea’s nuclear testing stems back to 2006 and 2009 when Jong-un’s ubber-militaristic little Big Daddy, Kim Jong-il vowed to create a nuclear missile warhead to take out the United States. Maybe if President Obama sits down and has a chat with this guy maybe he’d chill. Barack has a way of soothing ruffled feathers. ♦
You might have heard the case of the family in Maryland who are suing the Monster Energy Drink for the wrongful death of their 14-year-old daughter who died after drinking two cans of the drink within a 24-hour period. They are claiming the caffeine in the product contributed to her death.
A Mayo Clinic study found that two 24-ounce cans of Monster Energy Drink contain 480 milligrams of caffeine, the equivalent of five eight-ounce cups of coffee. Eeeoow!!!
A Monster company spokesman says:
“As a company, we vehemently deny that drinking two cans of Monster Energy by itself can cause a death from caffeine toxicity. Two 16-ounce cans of Monster Energy Drinks contain less or a similar amount of caffeine than one 16-ounce cup of filtered coffee from the leading coffee house.”
YES IT CAN!, if your company markets the beverage to a 14 y.o. girl as a soft drink. And that girl had never even drunk a cup of coffee in her young life. The company’s shares plunged $7.59 (14.23 percent) to $46.12 after the case was publicized. ♦
A California couple says fugitive ex-police officer Christopher Dorner tied them up in their mountain condominium and stole their car before the firefight that led to his presumed death.
Karen and Jim Reynolds said at a news conference Wednesday that they came upon Dorner when they entered the condo in Big Bear, Calif. Tuesday, and believe he’d been there as early as Friday.
They say Dorner had a gun but said he wouldn’t hurt them. Karen said, “He talked to us. Tried to calm us down. And saying very frequently he would not kill us.” “He was very calm and very methodical,” — ABC News
What’s rubbing me the wrong way about this case…
“Terrified and shaken up after a harrowing experience”, would not be the phrase I’d used to describe the couple’s demeanor. More like “jovial” I think.
Were these two jokers living in a cave? Did they not hear about a manhunt in their area for a “mass-murdering ex-marine officer” in their midst. Was their tv on the blink, internet down, cell phones roaming, what!?
How in the world did two senior citizens, zip tied, gagged with pillowcases shoved ontop their heads, manage to free themselves to make that all important 911 call?
There’s more, but I’m gonna hafta pick my battles. This case is closed now with Dorner’s apparent death-by-fire…
Barack Obama has mocked North Korea’s space technology, saying its failed launch showed the country was wasting money on rockets that “don’t work” while its people starved.
The US president told a television interviewer that the North Koreans had “been trying to launch missiles like this for over a decade now, and they don’t seem to be real good at it”.
But he called Friday’s failed launch an area of deep concern for the United States and told an interview with the Spanish-language TV network Telemundo, broadcast that the US would work with other nations to “further isolate” North Korea.
The launch violates two United Nations Security Council resolutions and the US says it will scrap a plan to give food aid to North Korea.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Kim Jong Il, North Korea’s mercurial and enigmatic leader, has died. He was 69.
Kim’s death was announced Monday by state television from the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.
Kim is believed to have suffered a stroke in 2008 but appeared relatively vigorous in photos and video from recent trips to China and Russia and in numerous trips around the country carefully documented by state media.
The leader, reputed to have had a taste for cigars, cognac and gourmet cuisine, was believed to have had diabetes and heart disease.
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