(CNN) — Former NBA star Dennis Rodman arrived in North Korea on Thursday, the country’s state-run media reported.
Rodman was there for his latest round of controversial “basketball diplomacy” in a country ruled by one of the world’s most repressive regimes.
The former player and a documentary crew were scheduled to spend four days helping to train a team of North Korean basketball players for a January exhibition in Pyongyang.
That January 8 exhibition — said to be against a yet-unannounced team of former NBA players — will celebrate the birthday of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, whom Rodman has called a friend and a “very good guy” despite international condemnation of the country’s human rights records.
Rodman’s trip — sponsored by the online betting company Paddy Power — is the 52-year-old’s third to North Korea.
Rodman said he struck up a friendship with Kim, a basketball fan, during Rodman’s first trip in February. After the two men sat next to each other watching a basketball exhibition in North Korea’s capital, Rodman told Kim that “you have a friend for life.”
Rory Scott, a Paddy Power spokesman, said earlier this month that December’s trip is nonpolitical, but is intended “to prove once again that sport has the power to rise above all issues.”
It’s not clear whether Rodman will meet with Kim on the basketball training visit.
The trip comes at a time of political turmoil in the secretive nuclear-armed nation, ongoing tensions between North Korea and the United States and outcries over North Korea’s human rights record.
