Dennis Rodman Hopes North Korea Trips Earn Him Nobel Peace Prize
Dennis Rodman, months after visiting North Korea, is expecting consideration for the Noble Peace Prize after trying to get the United States and the communist country to come together.
At a recent event where he was promoting his new children's book Rodman took the chance to explain why he visited North Korea in the first place and why he has plans to return later this year in August.
"My mission is to break the ice between hostile countries," Rodman told Sports Illustrated. "Why it's been left to me to smooth things over, I don't know. Dennis Rodman, of all people. Keeping us safe is really not my job; it's the black guy's [Obama's] job. But I'll tell you this: If I don't finish in the top three for the next Nobel Peace Prize, something's seriously wrong."
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Rodman, who is now the most high-profile American to meet Kim Jong Un, told local media outside of the Pyongyang's Sunan airport in May before departing that it was "amazing how [Kim Jong Un] was so honest."
"Guess what, his grandfather, and his father were great leaders, and he's such a proud man," Rodman, who was visiting the country along with the famed American basketball exhibition team the Harlem Globetrotters, said. "He's proud, his country likes him – not like him, love him, love him," Rodman said. "Guess what, I love him. The guy's really awesome."
Many have described Rodman's visit to North Korea and his blatant praise of Kim Jong Un as being strange, especially because of the mutual hostility between the U.S. and North Korea. There is no formal diplomatic relations between the United States and North Korea, and the U.S. is regularly condemning the North's for its suspected nuclear program. Until 2008, North Korea was on America's "State Sponsors of Terrorism" list.
