Dennis Rodman Asked To Cancel Exhibition Game

Dennis Rodman Asked To Cancel Exhibition Game

The upcoming basketball exhibition game of Dennis Rodman in North Korea drew criticisms from New York Representative Eliot Engel. The Democratic congressman appealed to the former basketball star during a press conference together with a mother and daughter who fled North Korea.

Engel compared the game of Rodman to a lunch with Adolf Hitler. He added the actions of Rodman were ill-conceived. Engel is currently working on legislation that will increase and implement sanctions on North Korea.

This will be the fourth visit of Dennis Rodman to North Korea. He also gained international attention due to his friendship with Kim Hong-Un, whom the player called his friend for life.

Rodman revealed during a press conference at Beijing prior to his trip to Pyongyang that the situation in the country was not as bad as what was portrayed over the media.

However, activists have indicated that the country has among the worst human rights record in the world. Around 120,000 political opponents are reportedly imprisoned in the country, which has continuously threatened other countries, including the United States.

The former NBA star is the highest profile US citizen to meet with Kim after he took power in 2011. Rodman indicated that he will not open up on the human rights issue of the release of foreigners imprisoned by North Korea. One of the foreigners held by the country was a Korean War veteran from the US.

North Korea Freedom Coalition head Suzanne Chelti said the country can be considered as the worst violation of human rights in the world. The participation of Rodman in an exhibition game was a propaganda tool for the North and a stumbling block for human rights.

An escapee from North Korea, Jo Jin Hye, said that if Dennis Rodman and the other players want to help the country, they should help ordinary people and not the government of North Korea.

Posted by James Fried on Wednesday January 08 2014, 4:51 AM EST. Ref: Time. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0