Dennis Rodman’s bizarre diplomatic ventures in North Korea are once again in the spotlight, following a conversation with Joe Rogan, as fears grow the United States could be sucked into World War 3.
The discussion revisited the five-time NBA champion’s 2013 visit to Pyongyang and his controversial relationship with Kim Jong-un, which comes amid renewed scrutiny of the secretive regime’s political maneuvers.
On The Joe Rogan Experience, Jay Oakerson brought up HBO’s Big Bang in Pyongyang, a documentary chronicling Rodman’s attempt to stage a basketball exhibition in North Korea with other former NBA players.
Though intended to promote goodwill, the trip spiraled into a surreal spectacle and one that echoed the fictional narrative of The Interview, a satirical film released in 2014 that depicted an American journalist (James Franco) forming a friendship with the North Korean dictator.
“He goes over there and hangs with Kim Jong. It’s the best documentary… as soon as humanly possible to Dennis Rodman’s Big Bang in Pyongyang,” Big Jay said, describing the sequence of events as “nonsense.”
“Dennis Rodman stops playing,” Oakerson continued. “He just changes out of his uniform and puts on street clothes, and goes and hangs out with Kim Jong-un right away.
“He also has the audience try to sing along Happy Birthday to Kim Jong-un at the start of the game.
“But the audience doesn’t know what he’s singing, so they just start clapping too fast while he’s singing.”
Interestingly, The Interview, written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, was conceived before the athlete’s trips to North Korea ever took place; with Franco recalling the script was completed so early that it originally referenced Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un’s father.
Rodman, who played for the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers, has visited North Korea five times, with his last trip occurring in 2017 under the sponsorship of cryptocurrency firm PotCoin.
His relationship with Kim became so personal that he was reportedly the first foreigner to meet the dictator’s daughter, who made her first public appearance in 2022 at a missile test.
Despite the seriousness of the geopolitical climate at the time, including heightened U.S.-North Korea tensions, heinsisted that his goal was to foster peace – although that contrasted sharply with Donald Trump’s public exchanges with Kim Jong-un were marked by a mix of taunts and overtures.
United States-Iran feud: Latest update as Trump claims ceasefire agreed
Since then, Rodman has remained out of North Korea, and Trump’s foreign policy focus has shifted elsewhere, particularly to the conflict between Iran and Israel after the Zionist nation bombed the Islamic Middle Eastern state.
Iran responded by attacking a United States airbase in Qatar on June 24, to which the POTUS dismissed as weak and there are currently no reports of American casualties.
Trump has since further claimed online that Israel and Iran have agreed a “complete and total” ceasefire, however this is currently unconfirmed by officials in either Tel Aviv or Tehran.
“At this very moment,” an Iranian official told CNN. “The enemy is committing aggression against Iran.
“And Iran is on the verge of intensifying its retaliatory strikes, with no ear to listen to the lies of its enemies.”
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