# Dennis Rodman talks to Kim **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 4, 2013, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-rodman-talks-to-kim/652018 "2013-03-04T18:02:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-rodman-talks-to-kim/652018/1 "2013-03-04T18:02:49Z")
I find this rather fascinating. The only American to talk to North Korea’s leader. Personally, I have discovered that bad things turn out worse when there is no communication. This goes for relationships, countries, neighbors, etc. So, I am happy that the door is open. Maybe something better will become of it. Equally intriguing is the SOS take on it. It appears that Mr. Rodman might have something to share with them. But their attitude is, Well, we won’t contact him, but if he wants to contact us, we could talk. Are you people enjoying this event as much as me? ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-rodman-talks-to-kim/652018/2 "2013-03-04T18:06:08Z")
I’m with John Avlon, who as commentor for CNN wrote \*"In a rambling interview on ABC News’ “This Week,” Rodman defended his trip and his budding friendship with Kim, telling George Stephanopoulos: “I don’t condone what he does, but as far as a person to person, he’s my friend” and then went on to the fetid well of moral equivalence to dismiss the prison camps and reports of mass murder as “just politics.” \ This is where judgment and moral clarity come in handy – two concepts rarely associated with Dennis Rodman. That’s why George Stephanopoulos was right to hand him a copy of the Human Rights Watch report on North Korea after Rodman declared his intention to return to North Korea for another visit sometime soon. Vacationing in dictatorships is always a bad idea, even if it is justified by the self-serving notion of conducting personal diplomacy. It is still, as the Sex Pistols once said, “a cheap holiday in other people’s misery.”\* ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-rodman-talks-to-kim/652018/3 "2013-03-04T18:09:40Z")
Kim has studied in the West. ([Cracked article, see no 6](http://www.cracked.com/article_19894_8-ordinary-photos-hiding-mind-blowing-details.html)) > [@](#): > > As it turns out, in his teenage years, Kim Jong Un was sent to Switzerland for schooling. From 1996 to 2001, he studied and made friends with classmates who were unaware of his true identity. At that point the only thing Kim cared about was playing basketball … I don’t think this will do much for relations. If Kim had wanted to bridge the gap, I would rather have seen him invite the US or Eu secretary of State. All I see is an dicator inviting a paid celeb he personally liked, on his starving peoples dime. He might as well have hired Beyonce to give him a private concert, but she apparently is either out of his price-range, or she has actual standards, unlike Rodman. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-rodman-talks-to-kim/652018/4 "2013-03-04T18:15:01Z")
It’s just Dennis Rodman. It doesn’t mean much. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-rodman-talks-to-kim/652018/5 "2013-03-04T18:22:38Z")
Rodman didn’t just flit off to North Korea on his own. I am pretty sure you can’t do that. He was there with the Harlem Globetrotters. They just happened to play a split-squad game where one team of Globetrotters and North Korean players played to a tie against another team of Globetrotters and North Korean players. (Rodman didn’t play.) There is no way the State Department was uninvolved with this at least in a general way. I assume they felt this trip was a positive thing or at least not a negative, but who cares what Dennis Rodman has to say about it personally? He’s an idiot. > [@harmonicamoon](#): > > The only American to talk to North Korea’s leader. He might be the only one to talk to Kim Jong-Un, but other Americans have talked to North Korean leaders. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-rodman-talks-to-kim/652018/6 "2013-03-05T02:20:42Z")
“Good luck to Dennis Rodman as he heads off to the Vatican to help with the conclave.” - Albert Brooks ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-rodman-talks-to-kim/652018/7 "2013-03-05T02:27:26Z")
Sounds like Rodman is missing the celebrity status he used to have, and is desperate to be in the new for anything at all. He’s a real piece of work, right up there with Jane Fonda. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-rodman-talks-to-kim/652018/8 "2013-03-05T02:59:04Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > There is no way the State Department was uninvolved with this at least in a general way. Why not? I’m not disagreeing with you, just wondering. ---
**Author:** ![colonial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/34f0e0/32.png) [@colonial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colonial)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-rodman-talks-to-kim/652018/9 "2013-03-05T03:11:05Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Rodman didn’t just flit off to North Korea on his own. I am pretty sure you can’t do that. He was there with the Harlem Globetrotters. They just happened to play a split-squad game where one team of Globetrotters and North Korean players played to a tie against another team of Globetrotters and North Korean players. (Rodman didn’t play.) There is no way the State Department was uninvolved with this at least in a general way. I assume they felt this trip was a positive thing or at least not a negative, but who cares what Dennis Rodman has to say about it personally? He’s an idiot. > > He might be the only one to talk to Kim Jong-Un, but other Americans have talked to North Korean leaders. I do not believe the State Department could have been viewing the Globetrotter/Rodman trip with anything except resignation. At least I hope not. It needs to say so in the same terms it did about the Schmidt/Richardson trip in January: > **[Google's Eric Schmidt ends mysterious North Korea trip](https://money.cnn.com/2013/01/10/news/eric-schmidt-google-north-korea/index.html)** > > Google's Eric Schmidt wrapped up a controversial trip to North Korea on Thursday during which he urged the isolated state to embrace the internet or face further economic decline. > [@](#): > > The (Schmidt-Richardson) trip was also made over the [objections](http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/07/news/schmidt-richardson-north-korea/index.html?iid=EL) of the State Department, which is trying to manage fallout resulting from a successful rocket launch carried out by North Korea in the face of international condemnation. The State Department said last week that the trip was ill-timed. “Frankly we don’t think the timing of this is particularly helpful, but they are private citizens and they are making their own decisions,” spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters. “They are well aware of our views.” It was particularly vulgar of Schmidt to be hawking the goods in a place like North Korea, which recently let perhaps millions starve to death in order to feed the maw of its Orwellian military police state, and its nuclear WMD project. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-rodman-talks-to-kim/652018/10 "2013-03-05T03:12:40Z")
> [@harmonicamoon](#): > > The only American to talk to North Korea’s leader. This was the height of unreality. It was one alien being meeting up with another alien being. Absurd doesn’t even begin to describe it. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-rodman-talks-to-kim/652018/11 "2013-03-05T05:01:22Z")
You naysayers say what you will, but I for one am reverently impressed that Kim Jong Un singlehandledly defeated the Harlem Globetrotters, as dutifully reported on all party news outlets. Significantly, most if not all of the Globetrotters defected to North Korea late in the game to aid and share in the Outstanding Leader’s glorious victory. Let us all join in righteous praise at the General of all Generals, Kim Jong Un! ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-rodman-talks-to-kim/652018/12 "2013-03-05T07:00:42Z")
All hail. I for one welcome our new North Korean basketball playing overlords. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dennis-rodman-talks-to-kim/652018/13 "2013-03-05T07:49:43Z")
It’s like the tawdry cousin of ping pong diplomacy.