North Korean Peace Envoy Dennis Rodman? Former NBA Player Lobbies Trump For Official Position

Flamboyant former NBA player Dennis Rodman thinks that there can be peace between the United States and North Korea and he’s the man for the job. Rodman has been lobbying President Donald Trump for an official position as a peace envoy, he said.

“I’ve been trying to tell Donald since day one: ‘Come talk to me, man … I’ll tell you what the Marshal (Rodman’s nickname for Kin Jong Un) wants more than anything … It’s not even that much,’” said Rodman in an interview with the Guardian published Monday.

Rodman traveled to Beijing Sunday on what he called a U.S. - North Korea “humanitarian trip.” Rodman has visited North Korea five times and has appointed himself a diplomat of sorts — calling Kim a friend. The ruler of North Korea is a noted basketball fan, especially of Rodman’s former Chicago Bulls teammate Michael Jordan. Whether Kim views Rodman as more than just a curiosity is unknown, though it doesn't appear as if Rodman has had any effect on North Korea's foreign policy.

Whether Rodman will travel to North Korea for a sixth time remains to be seen. U.S. officials, however, have discouraged him and told him “it’s not a good time right now.” The State Department banned travel to North Korea for U.S. passport holders in September, but there are exemptions — mostly for journalists and aid workers.

The ban came after the death of American student Otto Warmbier. Warmbier was detained for allegedly trying to steal a North Korean propaganda poster while in the country as a tourist. He was held for over a year before being returned to the U.S. in a coma and with extensive loss of brain tissue that mirrored the injuries of cardiopulmonary arrest. Warmbier was in a state of unresponsive wakefulness before he died.

During Rodman’s last trip earlier this year, the basketball player passed out Trump’s book “Art of the Deal," though Rodman hasn’t met with Kim every trip including his most recent. Rodman’s first trip to North Korea was in 2013, when he went with a Vice News Team and several members of the Harlem Globetrotters for a basketball game.

Rodman spent the last week in the U.S. territory of Guam and Tokyo and told the Los Angeles Times he was trying to organize a North Korea-Guam basketball game.

Rodman has taken some heat for his avoidance of political topics on his trips to North Korea, as he did help ensure Warmbier’s release and has not talked about North Korea’s human's rights abuse.

“I don’t even try to think about [the bad things],” said Rodman to the Guardian. “If I can go back over there … you’ll see me talking to [Kim], and sitting down and having dinner, a glass of wine, laughing and doing my thing. I guess things will settle down a bit and everybody can rest at ease.”

The tensions Rodman believes he can relieve loom large. North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile at the end of the month and claimed they can place a nuclear warhead anywhere in the U.S. Trump has ripped a page out of North Korea’s book and has threatened to destroy the country several times over the last year.