Dennis Rodman reportedly gifted President Trump’s book, “Trump: The Art of the Deal” to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, via the dictator’s minister of sport, CNN reported Thursday.
The former NBA player and hall of famer continues his fifth visit to the country as a private citizen. He is an unexpected link between the U.S. president and the North Korean dictator, as the controversial basketball player is one of the only people to have spent significant time with both men.
Mr. Rodman was a contestant on two seasons of Mr. Trump’s reality TV show, “The Celebrity Apprentice,” and also considers Mr. Kim a “a friend for life.”
His arrival in Pyongyang on Tuesday bizarrely coincided with the release of American Otto Warmbier, who was evacuated after 17 months detainment, reportedly being in a coma for the better part of a year.
KCNA, the North Korean state-run news agency, said Mr. Warmbier was released on humanitarian grounds, Reuters reported.
U.S. media detailed a clandestine diplomatic mission to secure the release of Mr. Warmbier, which included the travel of U.S. State Department’s special envoy on North Korea, Joseph Yun, to Pyongyang to demand the 22-year-old’s release.
Mr. Warmbier reportedly slipped into a coma when he was given a sleeping pill after contracting botulism, an infection typically caused by bacteria contracted from improperly packaged canned meat, The Washington Post reported.
Mr. Rodman has characterized his trips as “basketball diplomacy,” since first traveling to the country in 2013 for an exhibition game between ex-NBA players and the North Korean basketball team.
He is accused of legitimizing a brutal, communist regime where its leaders are revered as god-like figures and any dissension is harshly punished by imprisonment in forced labor camps for years or execution.
Mr. Kim is accused of executing numerous members of his party to cement his hold on power. He is categorized as an unstable leader in charge of nuclear weapons, ratcheting up tensions between North Korea and South Korea and the United States with a number of provocative acts, including the test-launching of a dozen ballistic missiles over the past year and flying reconnaissance drone missions over the South.
• Laura Kelly can be reached at lkelly@washingtontimes.com.
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