Retired NBA star Dennis Rodman has hailed Kim Jong-Un by insisting that he has a good friendship with the North Korean leader.
The 52-year-old is travelling to Pyongyang with a team of 11 American basketball players for a match to celebrate the leader's birthday on Wednesday.
While at Beijing airport, Rodman said that he may sit down with Kim Jong-Un in the future to discuss human rights.
"The only thing I am doing right now, I am only doing one thing - this game is for his birthday," Rodman told Sky News. "It's for his birthday.
"And I hope that if this opens doors and we can actually talk about certain things, then we can do certain things, but I am not going to sit there and go in and say 'hey guy, you're doing the wrong thing'.
"That's not the right thing to do. He's my friend first. He's my friend. I tell the world 'he's my fucking friend, I love him."
North Korea is widely known to have the worst human rights record in the world.
Danielle Joynson
