Dennis Rodman and all star basketball team board flight to North Korea

(6 Jan 2014) Former US National Basketball Association (NBA) player Dennis Rodman said on Monday that he was happy to be returning to North Korea, as he took a team of former NBA players on a trip for an exhibition game to take place on leader Kim Jong Un's birthday on Wednesday. The flamboyant Hall of Famer was heading to the North Korean capital from Beijing with a squad of a dozen former basketball stars including Vin Baker and Cliff Robinson in what Rodman calls "basketball diplomacy." US officials have criticised his efforts. "I'm always happy to go back there," Rodman said, adding "as a matter of fact, to me he (referring to North Korean leader Kim Jon Un) is a good guy to me." "What he does political-wise, that's not my job, you know. My job is to entertain the people and make sure that the people in the country are very happy and cool, that's it," he said. The US is at odds with North Korea over its nuclear weapons programme, and Rodman has been criticised for not talking about North Korea's human rights record, described as one of the world's worst by activists, the US State Department and North Korean defectors. The defectors have repeatedly testified about the government's alleged use of indiscriminate killings, rapes, beatings and prison camps holding as many as 120,000 people deemed opponents of authoritarian leader Kim Jong Un, the third generation of his family to rule. Rodman said he hoped his mission to North Korea would 'open 'doors.' "I'm not a president, I'm not a politician, I'm not an ambassador. I'm just an athlete and the reason for me to go is to bring peace to the world, that's it. That's all I want," Rodman said. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...