WASHINGTON: Former basketball star Dennis Rodman offered on Friday to take the place of an imprisoned Korean-American in North Korea, as he spoke publicly for the first time from a rehab facility.
Rodman, 52, appeared on CNN less than a month after his fourth trip within 12 months to North Korea, where he sang “Happy Birthday” to supreme leader Kim Jong-Un, whom he calls a personal friend.
He said he felt for the family of Kenneth Bae, 45, a devout Christian tour operator arrested in November 2012 and later sentenced to 15 years of hard labour for allegedly importing “inflammatory” material.
“I feel for them deeply,” he told CNN’s “New Day” programme.
“Like I said, I will do anything, literally anything — this is Dennis Rodman talking — if they say, ‘We’ll take Dennis Rodman and let Kenneth Bae go,’ straightaway, take me.
“I will do that... I have no problem,” he added.
Upon leaving North Korea earlier this month, Rodman prompted outrage when he suggested on the same CNN program that Bae was responsible for his own fate.
The player later apologized and blamed alcohol for his remarks.
Bae’s sister Terri Chung declined to react to Rodman’s latest remarks, saying: “We are going to decline politely from making any comments at this time.”
Rodman, who checked into a rehab facility in New Jersey upon his return to the United States, also spoke of his alcoholism, stating: “I’ve always been a party animal (and) the reason I drink is because I’m bored.”
Of North Korea’s leader, he said: “I don’t know him as a dictator. With him, he’s a 31-year-old guy and I call him a kid all the time, and yeah, he’s my friend.
AFP
