Trip sponsor bows out
Irish bookmaker Paddy Power has withdrawn its sponsorship of retired US basketball player Dennis Rodman’s visits to North Korea, saying it was a result of general condemnation of Pyongyang.
Rodman returned on Tuesday from a four-day trip to isolated North Korea that was arranged by Paddy Power and followed the rare public purge of leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful uncle Jang Song Thaek, who was executed this month.
‘‘It was really a reaction to the worldwide focus and total condemnation of the North Korean regime over recent events,’’ the betting firm, which is renowned for its daring marketing, said. ‘‘We don’t want to be associated with that.’’
North Korea’s economy, once larger than South Korea’s, is now a 40th the size of its neighbour. Its 24 million people regularly suffer food shortages, the United Nations says.
The execution reflected ‘‘the brutality of the regime’’ and its ‘‘low regard for human life’’, US President Barack Obama’s press secretary, Jay Carney, said earlier this month.
Rodman has visited Pyong-
Plug pulled: yang on two other occasions, during which he spent time dining as a guest of Kim, with whom he says he has a genuine friendship. He did not meet Kim on his third trip.
Rodman intends to return to Pyongyang in January with a team of fellow former National Basketball Association stars to hold basketball games on Kim’s birthday.
South Korean President Park Geun Hye has described recent events as a ‘‘reign of terror’’. The purging of Jang, considered the second most powerful man in the North, indicated factionalism within the secretive government.
Rodman told Reuters last week it was not his place to talk about such issues.
Rodman’s first visit in February came shortly after North Korea conducted its third nuclear test in defiance of UN resolutions. Rodman said upon his return from that trip that Kim wanted to receive a call from Obama, an avid basketball fan.
The White House has said the United States has direct channels of communication with North Korea and declined to directly respond to Rodman’s message.