Why Rodman's Trip Isn't Ping Pong Diplomacy

Dennis Rodman may be winning the hearts of North Korean fans, but this trip isn't statecraft.

The bizarre, media-crazed "diplomatic" mission to North Korea by Dennis Rodman and three fellow Harlem Globetrotters has become more interesting by the day. Since arriving in Pyongyang, the emissaries have wandered well beyond the confines of the basketball court and received a highly controlled tour of North Korea's offerings — from state monuments and towers to the palace that is the resting place of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, where state media reported that Rodman paid "high tribute."

Rodman and Kim Jong-un sat side by side to watch Globetrotters and North Korean players compete on mixed teams. In photos taken during the match, Rodman is seen fully pierced, in a dark suit and sunglasses, while Kim, in a blue Mao suit, slaps his hands on the table and laughs. The game ended in a 110–110 tie. "You have a friend for life," Rodman reportedly told Kim in a speech to a crowd numbering in the tens of thousands.

The fun culminated at Kim Jong-un's palace, where Rodman, the Globetrotters and the VICE Media crew filming the spectacle for HBO wined and dined on a spread that included smoked turkey and sushi. Multiple toasts were made. (Meanwhile, two-thirds of North Koreans survive on meager government handouts, with some resorting to eating grass and field mice.)

"I look at this as basketball diplomacy, the same way we had ping-pong diplomacy with China." — VICE founder Shane Smith

Smith has a point about the potential of soft power to lower barriers. But there seems to be a commonly held misconception that Rodman is blazing a new path into North Korea where no other cultural ambassadors have gone before. Media hype aside, cultural exchange in North Korea is not new — and the comparison to the "ping-pong diplomacy" that thawed U.S.-China relations is tenuous.