In an interview with DuJour magazine, Dennis Rodman praised North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for turning North Korea into a “24th century country.”
“He is changing North Korea so much it is really becoming a 24th century country now,” Rodman told the magazine. “It’s more like they took down the Flintstone Age and put in the Jetsons. Out with the old, in with the new.”
Rodman, who has made multiple trips to North Korea over the past several years to meet with Kim Jong Un, said North Korean citizens worship their leader, but don’t blink an eye when passing by him in the street.
“It’s like you’d think these people have a spell on them because all the talk about is him,” Rodman said. “I mean it’s insane. I am so intrigued about how they live their lives through this guy.”
“You think you’re a famous athlete over here, well, you feel really small when you go over there,” he added. “People don’t even know you. You think that you’re cool in America, that you can go anywhere and people recognize you, want your autograph and pictures. You go over there, and they just walk right past you.”
Rodman said North Korea has a “homemade” feel to it.
“Shopping there is all their own brands,” he said. “Everything there definitely has that homemade feel. Whether it’s clothing or anything, it’s all pretty much made there.”
Tensions between the United States and North Korea have escalated in recent months due to back-and-forth rhetoric between Pyongyang and President Donald Trump.
Earlier this month, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to pass its strongest sanctions yet on North Korea following its sixth ever successful nuclear missile launch.
North Korea promised the U.S. would “suffer the greatest pain it ever experienced in history” over the sanctions, which banned North Korea from exporting coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood.
North Korea’s sixth nuclear missile test caused a 6.3 earthquake and was roughly five times as large as the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, Japan. The test came hours after North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un claimed that it now had an H-bomb to put onto its long-range ICBM’s.
In response to President Donald Trump’s tweet that North Korea “won’t be around much longer” if it keeps threatening the United States, North Korea’s foreign minister said Trump has “declared war,” and that North Korea would shoot down U.S. bombers if it has to.
