Just back from another visit with his new buddy North Korea leader Kim Jong-un, former NBA star Dennis Rodman announced plans to organise friendship basketball games between the two countries.
As per an agreement with Kim, the first game will be on January 8, Kim's birthday, and the other on the 10th, Rodman told a news conference in New York on Monday. He referred to Kim as "the marshal".
"The marshal told me 'we want people to come here because we are not a bad country,'" the former Chicago Bulls star said. He returned from North Korea on Saturday after a week-long visit.
Little is known of Kim's private life in the reclusive and impoverished nuclear-armed state. Rodman confirmed, as he had said earlier to The Guardian, that Kim has a small daughter named Ju-Ae and he himself had held her in his arms.
"They gave me his daughter for the first time in history. I held his kid," Rodman said.
Since July 2012 it has been known that Kim is married, thanks to official photos that show him beside a young woman at events. His wife, Ri Sol-ju, looked to be pregnant in shots taken last December.
Rodman said he will return to North Korea on December 14 to train the local players who will play Americans in games sponsored by Irish bookmaking company Paddy Power.
He said he has also agreed to train the North Koreans for the 2016 summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
