• Cambodia
  • North Korea
  • Freelance Journalism
  • Freedom of speech
  • Human Rights
  • Internet Journalism
  • Religious Extremism

Nate Thayer - Journalist

A Compilation of Current Reporting and Archived Published Work of Journalist Nate Thayer

  • Support Publication of Sympathy for the Devil
  • Shop
  • Blog
  • About Nate Thayer
    • Selected Reviews and Commentary
  • Awards and Honors
You are here: Home / Dennis Rodman / Dennis Rodman steals ball from U.S. govt as N Korea cancels U.S. mission to free prisoner on eve of Rodman visit

Dennis Rodman steals ball from U.S. govt as N Korea cancels U.S. mission to free prisoner on eve of Rodman visit

August 30, 2013 by wpfixit

Dennis Rodman steals ball from U.S. government as N Korea cancels official U.S. mission to free prisoner on eve of Rodman visit

State: “It was a done deal. King was going to come back with Kenneth Bae. That was the arrangement”
See full story on NKNew.org http://www.nknews.org/2013/08/dennis-rodman-assumes-u-s-envoy-to-north-koreas-rescue-mission/
BY NATE THAYER , AUGUST 31, 2013

Former NBA legend Dennis Rodman will return to North Korea soon with a “promise” to gain the release of jailed American proselytizer Kenneth Bae, as Pyongyang abruptly cancelled Friday an invitation to a senior State Dept. official who, according to U.S. officials, had already hammered out an agreement that would have seen the prisoner return with the most senior U.S. official to visit the isolated nation since Kim Jong Un assumed power in December 2011.

Three days ago, on August 27, the U.S. State Department announced that Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Robert King would travel to North Korea to bring home an American Christian missionary doing hard labor in prison for proselytizing Christianity.

What several senior U.S officials involved in the negotiations to release the U.S. prisoner didn’t know, was flamboyant former basketball star Dennis Rodman, is scheduled to arrive in Pyongyang in a few days at the invitation of “my friend” Kim Jong Un with a stated mission to bring about the release of Kenneth Bae. Now, instead of Ambassador King, it appears that the tatood, heavily pierced ‘bad boy’ Rodman will likely be the point man for the release of Bae.

On Thursday, the U.S. announced King “will travel to Pyongyang August 30 on a humanitarian mission focused on securing the release of U.S. citizen Kenneth Bae,” according to a State Department spokesperson. “Ambassador King will request the D.P.R.K. pardon Mr. Bae and grant him special amnesty on humanitarian grounds so that he can be reunited with his family and seek medical treatment.”

But today, as King was en-route to North Korea and on a layover in Japan, Pyongyang cancelled the invitation to talk about the American prisoner “abruptly” and “without explanation,” according to the U.S. State department. The U.S. State Dept. said Friday it was “surprised and disappointed,” adding it had sought “clarification” from Pyongyang about the eleventh-hour decision. Despite having “sought clarification from the DPRK about its decision”, the U.S. announced this morning that  ”Ambassador King intends to return to Washington from Tokyo the afternoon of August 31.”

“King was not going there to negotiate the release of Bae. It was 100% agreed he was bringing Bae home–a done deal,” a U.S. government North Korean specialist who spoke with King Thursday and with years of experience negotiating the release of U.S. citizens jailed previously by Pyongyang told NK News. “He was going there to pick up the package.”

Had Ambassador King made his scheduled trip to Pyongyang, he would have been the highest level U.S. official to have visited the isolated nation since the young leader, Kim Jong Un, took power in December 2011.

Rodman “promised” Thursday that he would raise the issue with Kim Jong Un at a scheduled meeting at the invitation of “my friend” Kim Jong Un, the 29 year old basketball fanatic who leads North Korea and its nuclear weaponized fourth largest standing army in the world.

“I will definitely ask for Kenneth Bae’s release,” Rodman told Huffington’s Live host Marc Lamont Hill.

“I will say, ‘Marshal, why is this guy held hostage?’ I could try and soften it up in that way. If the Marshal says, ‘Dennis, you know, do you want me to let him loose?’ and then if I actually got him loose – and I’m just saying this out the blue – I’d be the most powerful guy in the world.”

See full story on NKNew.org http://www.nknews.org/2013/08/dennis-rodman-assumes-u-s-envoy-to-north-koreas-rescue-mission/

Filed Under: Dennis Rodman, Dennis Rodman North Korea, Kim Jong-un, North Korea, North Korea prisoners, U.S. North Korea, U.S. North Korea policy Tagged With: democratic peoples republic of korea, Dennis Rodman, Kenneth Bae, Nate Thayer, Nate Thayer blog, North Korea, North Korea Basketball, North Korea sanctions Kim Jong-un, North Korea U.S. policy

Pre-order Sympathy for the Devil, the new book by Nate Thayer

Pre-order sympathy for the devil book nate thayer

Support Publication of Sympathy for the Devil

Sympathy for the Devil: A Journalist's Memoir from Inside Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge I have been researching and writing Sympathy for the Devil: A Journalist's Memoir from Inside Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge for 25 years. For 25 years, I  conducted original reporting to compile what is now an 800 page, unedited manuscript. I have accumulated millions of words of notes, hundreds of hours of audio and video recordings and hundreds of photographs, and … [More...]

Please donate to support this blog

I am a freelance journalist who makes my living from writing. If you enjoy this blog, a donation, no matter how small or large, would be much appreciated and will go directly to supporting my ability to write and publish independently. I am grateful for the support of my readers. Donate Button with Credit Cards

FOLLOW NATE THAYER ON FACEBOOK

Tag Cloud

AP North Korea Cambodia Chris Barker Conspiracy theories Corruption democratic peoples republic of korea Dogs donald trump Freelance Journalism free speech Human Rights Humor Hun Sen Internet Journalism Journalism Journalism ethics Khmer Rouge Kim Jong-un Kim Jong Il KKK Ku Klux Klan Lamont Loyal White Knights Loyal White Knights KKK Media Ethics middle east Nate Thayer Nate Thayer blog North Korea North Korea Covert Operations North Korea Media North Korean propaganda North Korea sanctions Kim Jong-un organized crime Pol Pot Religious Extremism sex Social Media Sympathy for the Devil Terrorism U.S. domestic Terrorism U.S. Foreign Policy U.S. Politics United States War Correspondent

Categories

Featured Posts: Sympathy for the Devil by Nate Thayer

The Private Letters of a Foreign Correspondent: Communicating With the Khmer Rouge; CIA Spy Accusations; Nomination for a Pulitzer Prize

Nate Thayer: periodismo, crowdfunding y autopromo

Excerpts from “Sympathy for the Devil: A Journalists Memoir from Inside Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge”

U.S. Govt Sues Dog for $100,000 to solve health care crisis: Mutt responds to Power with Smooches

Pol Pot with daughter Nate Thayer Sympathy for the Devil

Pol Pot’s little girl grows up: Wedding of dictator’s only child is divorce from childhood trauma

The Road to Pol Pot: Snippets from a Journalists Memories

“Who is that singer? Johnny Jackson? Like he says, ‘We are the World!’ We are with the West! Let’s join together!” said a Khmer Rouge cadre

The Final Collapse of the Khmer Rouge: how the US dropped the ball when offered Pol Pot for trial

More Posts about Sympathy for the Devil

Recent Blog Posts

  • Never trust the internet or people are nuanced: A case study
  • Texas White Supremacist Jailed for Plot to Blow Up Federal Buildings
  • Nazi protesting Ohio CV-19 quarantine identified
  • Iran Revolutionary Guard Claims it ‘Invented’ Known Fake CV-19 Detector
  • U.S. Law Enforcement: Leader of U.S. Nazi Terror Group is a Russian Spy

Most Popular Posts

abc stolen pic july 29 1997 1108 am edt

How Ted Koppel and ABC TV Tried to Steal my Life Work

How Ted Koppel and ABC TV Tried to Steal my Life Work By Nate Thayer December 8, 2013 I am banned by legal agreement to write the following: ABC Television/ Disney Corporation, after seven years in court, where they attempted to bankrupt me and ruin my reputation for objecting to them stealing fifteen years of […]

Herb Trader Arthur Torsone

My Friend, Arthur: the World’s Biggest Dope Trafficker

Herb Trader: A Tale of Treachery and Espionage in the Global Marijuana Trade A Book Review, Sort of….. Excerpts from Sympathy for the Devil:A Journalist’s Memoir from Inside Pol Pot’s Cambodia. (To support the publication of Sympathy for the Devil, and to read other excerpts, see the right hand column of this website) (Copyright Nate Thayer. […]

A Day in the Life of a Freelance Journalist—2013

A Day in the Life of a Freelance Journalist—2013 Here is an exchange between the Global Editor of the Atlantic Magazine and myself this afternoon attempting to solicit my professional services for an article they sought to publish after reading my story “25 Years of Slam Dunk Diplomacy: Rodman trip comes after 25 years of […]

Menu

  • Support Publication of Sympathy for the Devil
  • Shop
  • Blog
  • About Nate Thayer
    • Selected Reviews and Commentary
  • Awards and Honors

Menu

  • Cambodia
  • North Korea
  • Freelance Journalism
  • Freedom of speech
  • Human Rights
  • Internet Journalism
  • Religious Extremism

Cambodia

When I Vomited on Khmer Rouge Leaders: How Chinese Covert Aid Saved my Life

North Korea

Jim Jones and North Korea: Comrades in Political Mass Murder

Human Rights

Assassination of Cambodian #Kemley Marks Hun Sen’s Mafia Rule

Internet Journalism

Washington Post gets punked by Malaysian earthquake “naked blogger”

Copyright © 2022 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in