- Sat
- Mar 2, 2013
- Updated: 4:51am
Trending topics
North Korea
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is a country in East Asia, located in the northern half of the Korean Peninsula bordering South Korea and China. Its capital, Pyongyang, is the country's largest city by both land area and population. It is a single-party state led by the Korean Workers' Party (KWP), and governed by Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un since 2012. It has a population of 24,052,231 (UN-assisted DPRK census 2008) made up of Koreans and a smaller Chinese minority. Japan 'opened' Korea in 1876 and annexed it in 1910. The Republic of Korea (ROK) was founded with US support in the south in August 1948 and the Soviet-backed Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the north in September that year.
You have a friend for life, Dennis Rodman tells Kim Jong-un
Rodman and Kim sit side by side at an exhibition game in Pyongyang, chatting as they watched players from North Korea and the US play on mixed teams
In Pictures
Editor's Pick
Victoria Harbour has been abused for decades, but the opening of the new Maritime Museum marks a softening of the government's attitude towards it. Nevertheless, writes Stuart Heaver, the battle...
Former NBA star Dennis Rodman met North Korea's Kim Jong-un yesterday 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 US play on mixed teams, Alex Detrick, a spokesman for the New York-based VICE media company, said.
Kim told Rodman he hoped the visit would break the ice between the US 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 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 towards the North.
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.
Yesterday's game in a packed gymnasium ended in a 110-110 draw, Detrick said.
Afterwards, Rodman addressed Kim 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, VICE TV producer Jason Mojica said.
"Um … so Kim Jong-un just got the #VICEonHBO crew wasted … no really, that happened," Mojica wrote on his Twitter feed.
Duffy later invited Kim to visit the US, a proposal met with hearty laughter from the North Korean leader, Detrick said.
