AP Photo/Kim Kwang Hyon
Former NBA basketball star Dennis Rodman presenting a book to North Korea's sports minister, Kim Il Guk.
PYONGYANG, North Korea - Dennis Rodman has delivered a message from President Donald Trump to North Korea - sort of.On Thursday, the former NBA player gave the country's sports minister a copy of Trump's book "The Art of the Deal," a present intended for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
It wasn't signed by Trump, who was Rodman's boss for two seasons of the "Celebrity Apprentice" reality-TV show. Rodman has said his visit has nothing to do with the White House.
But that wasn't the only gift Rodman brought for North Korea's leader.
Ian Bremmer, the president of the Eurasia Group, said on Twitter that Rodman also gave Kim a copy of Where's Waldo, fancy soaps, two autographed jerseys, and, strangely enough, a mermaid puzzle.
Some other highlights of what has so far been a low-key Pyongyang trip for the often flamboyant celebrity, who has visited the North four times before:
Hanging with North Korean athletes
While his previous visits in 2013 and 2014 often drew controversy, Rodman has said this week he's just here to meet old friends and have a good time.
He and his small entourage have been spending time hanging out with young North Korean basketball players and visiting local sights.
Rodman watched a North Korean men's basketball team and met Sports Minister Kim Il Guk. Along with the Trump book, other gifts he presented for Kim include a copy of "Where's Waldo? The Totally Essential Travel Collection," a mermaid puzzle, two sets of soaps, and two autographed jerseys.
Rodman also met North Korean Olympic athletes, including the judo gold medalist An Kum Ae.
"All of you guys should be proud of yourselves, because, you know, a lot of people don't give you guys credit, because this is such a small country, and not many people from North Korea can compete around the world," Rodman said.
He continued: "But for you guys to come back here in your country, with a medal, that says a lot about North Korea, because people don't really take North Korea so seriously about sports or anything like that."
REUTERS/KCNA
Rodman meets with Kim.
'An old friend'
Rodman, one of the only Westerners to have personally met Kim Jong Un, has been criticized for a prior trip during which he sang "Happy Birthday" to Kim and suggested an American missionary was at fault for his own imprisonment in North Korea, remarks for which he later apologized.
But the sports minister made clear Rodman was viewed fondly in Pyongyang.
"In the past, our respected supreme leader met you several times, and he used his precious time to watch the basketball match with the players you brought here. In the past he met you, so our people all know you well," Kim Il Guk told Rodman. "And also we feel that you are an old friend."
No role in student's release
Rodman's arrival on Tuesday came just hours after the North decided to release Otto Warmbier, an American university student who had been sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor for trying to steal a propaganda banner.
Warmbier, who had been confined for 17 months, has apparently fallen into a coma not long after his confinement began and Pyongyang issued a statement Thursday saying it decided to let him go for "humanitarian reasons."
Officials in Washington and Pyongyang said Rodman played no role in the release. Behind-the-scenes discussions regarding Warmbier had been underway well before his visit.
The 22-year-old Warmbier, a University of Virginia undergraduate, was convicted and sentenced in a one-hour trial in North Korea's Supreme Court in March 2016. He had tearfully confessed that he had tried to steal the banner.
His father, Fred Warmbier, told Fox News that his son was "terrorized and brutalized" and had been in a coma for more than a year.
The report of Warmbier's release on the North's official Korean Central News Agency made no mention of Warmbier's health.
Although US citizens are not barred from visiting North Korea, the State Department strongly advises against it.
With Warmbier's release, three other Americans remain imprisoned in North Korea.