Dennis Rodman opened up on Tuesday about his “friend for life” Kim Jong Un, revealing some intriguing details about how the two men hung out during Rodman’s trip to North Korea in 2013.
“We basically have fun. We have fun. People don’t realize that. We go to his private island. We go jet skiing,” Rodman told Megyn Kelly. “We sing karaoke, seriously we do. He tried to sing James Brown.”
Rodman said that he tried to help Kim in his rendition of Brown’s “Get On Up.”
Rodman’s experience in North Korea and as a contestant on “The Celebrity Apprentice,” makes him the highest profile person to have a pre-existing relationship with both Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump.
On set, Kelly pressed Rodman about the North Korean leader’s lengthy history of human rights abuses.
“I was so blind about the whole situation about North Korea,” said Rodman. “I was blind when I went over there. I knew nothing about that.”
“I went over there because I wanted to connect North Korea with sports in America,” he added, reiterating several times that his job wasn’t to be an international diplomat.
“That was not my job to go over there and figure out all that. My job was to bring sports and communication,” said Rodman. “I am not saying this guy is a great guy. I am saying he is good to me.”
Rodman also cast doubt on the true extent of Kim’s crimes, saying at one point that United Nations reports documenting his crimes were “all hearsay.”
Once mired in international isolation, North Korea has emerged on the world stage in recent days as a result of Kim Jong Un’s meeting with Donald Trump in Singapore last Tuesday. The pair issued a joint declaration committed to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, though it was thin on specifics. Both leaders hailed the meeting as a great victory.