Former Chicago Bulls star Dennis Rodman’s trips to North Korea have been the subject of scorn and ridicule in the West but do they deserve a second look? Simon Cockerell, general manger of Beijing-based Koryo Tours, which has taken thousands of visitors into North Korea since 1993, was there the night of Rodman’s infamous birthday song to Kim Jong-un. “We had exclusive rights to take in visitors to that game and we were using that to raise money for the deaf school in Pyongyang. We only got permission to go at the last minute. We had prior permission but we only got the final confirmation an hour and a half – two hours before the game itself. “I was there with about 20 tourists. We had to dress up nicely, couldn’t take in any phones, any wallets or cameras or anything. In North Korea, even though no one will say it, that’s always a sign that their highest leader will be present. If it is anyone else they don’t really care that much, if it is Kim Jong-un they do.” Cockerell got closer to Kim’s special guest than most, on the way into the Pyongyang Indoor Stadium. “I ran into Dennis, who I had met a number of times by then. He was on good form, carrying a drink and was pretty pleased with himself for having set this whole thing up. Dennis Rodman in North Korea: the adventures of an accidental ambassador “The game itself was awful. I’m no basketball fan but the quality, there was a disparity between the teams. One was a tight unit of people who played together and the other were older, a former legends team coasting a little bit. “But it was great fun. No one was there to see the peak of the sport, they were there to see a spectacle and a spectacle was what you got.” The biggest spectacle was not part of the game, but Rodman singing Happy Birthday to Kim. “No one in North Korea knew that it was Kim Jong-un’s birthday. That’s why when you see the video of Dennis singing, people don’t really pick up on it. “His cadence is a little slower but everybody knows that song. It’s the same song in Korean. It’s just they must have wondered who he was singing to.” Rodman made a speech before his song, which was translated but still left the crowd confused. “I know the translator very well, very competent person, but still Dennis was saying a lot of people around the world are criticising this. In the North Korean audience they have no idea about that. They don’t get involved in social media debates, they would have had no idea that anyone was criticising Rodman for going. They probably wondered what on earth he was talking about – and then the Happy Birthday. It’s hard to be in that position of any of the North Koreans there, scratching their heads and wondering what on Earth is going on. Strangest thing I’ve ever seen without a doubt. “It was quite a day. That evening Rodman shot a video with me proposing to my now wife. So he did two great things that day.” Rodman’s relationship with Kim has returned to the fore in recent weeks, where concerns over his health led to speculation he had died before a public appearance. There was, of course, no news out of North Korea. “There is no source close to the highest power there,” Cockerell said. There’s information that filters out but whenever the major events happen – nuclear tests, when Kim Jong-il died – nobody knows in advance. The news never leaks out, when Kim Jong-il died nobody knew for two days. There’s no leaks for the real big news.” Speculation was further fuelled by the border being closed since January in response to the coronavirus pandemic. “There has been no tourism, there have been no Koreans going in or out – almost nothing.” The country has claimed no positive cases so far. “At first they had no way to test for it, then testing kits were delivered, I think from Russia. They state every so often say how many tests they have done. NK News has a tracking programme for this. They claimed 700 tests and all negative. “This is possible,” Cockerell said. “It’s unlikely but you can only report what you can report. Cheating at golf is not Donald Trump’s only sporting foul “The only thing you know for sure about North Korea is that nobody knows anything for sure. This fits under that without doubt.” Rodman, having visited the country several times since his initial trip with Vice and the Harlem Globetrotters, is a rare source of insight. “I know Dennis still pops up in the media giving comments. Maybe he has some way of staying in contact or maybe he just gets a sense of what’s going on.” It all seems odd given how the relationship started, with Rodman under the assumption he was going to South Korea. “Vice were looking for a sensational media story, which is what they got and Dennis, at least after the fact, was looking for a legacy.” He’s arguably established that over the years, although some of his actions still make for good stories. Airplay Jordan: Michael is the GOAT and rap is the proof “There was the next trip where they went to Kim Jong-un’s house in East Coast, near Wonsan. This was the place where Rodman said it was like going to Ibiza. It’s where Rodman sang the Pearl Jam song with the Moranbong band as his backing act. An absurd thing to do but that happened. “The third trip was the one where Dennis showed up in Beijing without any luggage and claimed that the airline had lost his luggage, which they denied. It is possible that he just got on the plane in Miami in December and arrived in Beijing. “Luckily Ya Show market solved that problem,” Cockerell said, of a trip to the notorious fake market to bargain hunt for NBA-sized winter wear (which Rodman would later wear on CNN). He returned for the game a month later in January, 2014. “The last time he met Kim Jong-un was on the day of the basketball match. It seems not long ago but I just had my fifth wedding anniversary and that was the night he shot a proposal video. It’s been a while. “Since then he has been back twice but not to do any big events. His sponsor for the fifth and sixth trips was Potcoin, this cryptocurrency for marijuana exchanges, which apparently can’t be used on marijuana exchanges anyway.” That sort of thing might make for good headlines but Cockerell does not think that Rodman gets enough credit. “The one thing I would say about him is that his heart is very much in the right place. It’s easy for people to criticise him but he was willing to do it. “He was able to show to millions of people in North Korea that it is possible for interaction with foreigners to take place, that it is possible for an unconventional character like him to make some connection to their leader. These are things which didn’t exist before. Republicans, murder and Spike Lee – a history of Nike Air Jordans “He humanised their leader by giving him a birthday to people there, he brought back the information that nobody had that Kim Jong-un had a child. He’s the source of that actual fact.” “I think for people to have expected more from him would have been a bit too much. He did a great job and even if he started the whole thing not knowing that there was a North Korea at all, he finished it having done more than almost anyone else has ever achieved.” An unexpected hero? “It takes all sorts.” Help us understand what you are interested in so that we can improve SCMP and provide a better experience for you. We would like to invite you to take this five-minute survey on how you engage with SCMP and the news.