Yeah, I was going to come in and say this. While aspects of African-American culture (music, clothing, etc) might be popular or emulated, it’s a far cry from saying North Koreans or just the Kim family have an affinity for Black Americans themselves.
Kind of a “some of them are ok, but I wouldn’t want my daughter marrying one” deal. It’s not just North Korea. You’ll see similar attitudes across pretty much all of east Asia though perhaps not to the same degree as officially sanctioned in North Korea. Japan and Korea aren’t some of the most ethnically homogeneous areas in the world for no reason.
As for Rodman, I can’t believe people honestly think he’s to be taken as any sort of goodwill ambassador or potential access to Kim. He’s always been a sideshow attraction. At best, he does the situation no harm. At worst, he detracts attention and resources from dealing with one of the worst regimes in the world.
The one good thing I could see coming of this would be if Rodman gets his picture taken with Kim, and the picture gets published in North Korea. It’d be a very graphic demonstration that people outside of North Korea are big, strong, and healthy, especially by comparison with the stunted North Koreans.
They’d see a photo with a caption saying something like ‘Famous U.S. giant basketball star comes to pay tribute to Kim Jong Un, showing the Not at All Chubby Leader is respected by powers around the world.’
Maybe some former NCAA basketballers who weren’t good enough for the NBA and, frankly, aren’t any good at anything besides playing BB would be willing to go on the trip to NK. I don’t know how an exhibition game with a NK team could turn out well. Remember how Saddam’s sons had members of the losing Iraqi Olympic teams beaten and tortured? Maybe I just don’t understand the brotherhood of sportsmen and how closely the NKs follow it, but I don’t think going to NK and beating them in something is the safest thing to do.
I’ll be curious to see if Rodman can even deliver 12 guys. Even retired semi pros that played in Europe would need a lot of convincing and a fat paycheck. Rodman may have to get out there and play & coach.
How competitive is N Korea’s International b-ball team? I know they had one, is it still playing?
I didn’t know about it. They didn’t mention sponsors in any of my OP links. I wondered who was paying.
I’d guess the four Kim’s have diverted hundreds of millions out of N Korea since the early 1950’s to Swiss Accounts. It just speculation based on other despots like Gaddafi.
Well The Worm came through. He’s actually put together a team of retire NBA players and the team has traveled to N Korea.
I didn’t think he could do it. The sponsor dropped out just before Christmas. The recent reports that Kim’s uncle was thrown into a pack of hungry dogs. That’s the most horrific execution imaginable.
It’s surprising that the State Dept didn’t block this many Americans from traveling to N Korea. I guess we don’t have the same travel bans like we do with Cuba?
According to this story, “Irish betting company Paddy Power PLC – a driving force behind the exhibition – removed its name last month as the title sponsor. The company is still financing the trip and is honoring all contractual commitments.” They don’t want their name attached to the game anymore, but they’ll pay for it since they agreed to do so.
So Rodman had a secret backer. This thing may unravel faster than Kim’s inner circle.