Dennis Rodman offers to take Kenneth Bae's place in a North Korean jail
Ex-NBA star criticised for view on Kenneth Bae's jailing by Pyongyang would serve his sentence
Former basketball star Dennis Rodman offered to take the place of an imprisoned Korean- American in North Korea, as he spoke publicly for the first time from a rehab facility.
Rodman, 52, appeared on CNN less than a month after his fourth trip within 12 months to North Korea, where he sang Happy Birthday to supreme leader Kim Jong-un, whom he calls a personal friend.
He said he felt for the family of Kenneth Bae, 45, a devout Christian tour operator arrested in November 2012 and later sentenced to 15 years of hard labour for allegedly importing "inflammatory" material.
"I feel for them deeply," he told CNN's New Day programme.
"Like I said, I will do anything, literally anything - this is Dennis Rodman talking - if they say, 'We'll take Dennis Rodman and let Kenneth Bae go,' straightaway, take me.
"I will do that ... I have no problem," he added.
Upon leaving North Korea last month, Rodman prompted outrage when he suggested on the same CNN programme that Bae was responsible for his own fate.