Rodman returns from N. Korea without detained American

BEIJING (Yonhap News) ― Retired NBA star Dennis Rodman arrived in Beijing Saturday on his way home after a five-day visit to North Korea during which he said he met with the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, to discuss “peace and sports.”

Rodman’s trip to North Korea this week, his second there since earlier this year, came just days after Pyongyang abruptly canceled its invitation for a senior U.S. diplomat to visit the country to secure the release of a jailed American man.

Despite media speculation that Rodman, with his personal ties to the North Korean leader, may help win freedom for Kenneth Bae, he left the country apparently without any word about his future.

Speaking to reporters at Beijing’s Capital Airport, Rodman said he spoke with Kim during the trip but only exchanged views about “peace, sports ... and my team and their team in North Korea.”

He called Kim a “friend for my life,” shouting angrily: “I don’t give (expletive) about what people around the world think about him.”

Rodman showed reporters dozens of pictures taken of him with Kim and said he gave the young leader a bottle of vodka as a gift.

When repeatedly asked by reporters whether he had asked Kim to release Bae, Rodman shouted in an agitated tone, “Ask (U.S. President Barack) Obama about. Ask Hillary Clinton.”

Earlier, the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported briefly that Kim and Rodman had a “cordial talk.” It gave no other details.

Before leaving Beijing for North Korea on Tuesday, Rodman had played down the possibility that he would seek Bae’s release, saying he was visiting the North as an athlete.

Rodman met with Kim during his first visit in March at a time when tensions on the Korean Peninsula were running high following the North’s third nuclear test in February.

Bae, a 45-year-old tour operator and missionary, was arrested in North Korea in November for unspecified activities that Pyongyang officials said were intended to undermine the North’s regime.

In April, he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.