Basket ball's 'bad boy' Dennis Rodman tells Kim Jong Un 'you have a friend for life'

Retired US basketball player Dennis Rodman has told North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his improbable journey to Pyongyang, that "You have a friend for life."

According to a spokesman for the New York-based VICE media company, Rodman said so before a crowd of thousands at a gymnasium where they sat side by side, chatting as they watched players from North Korea and the U.S. play.

Dressed in a blue Mao suit, Kim laughed and slapped his hands on the table before him during the game as he sat nearly knee to knee with Rodman, Fox News reports.

Kim and Rodman chatted in English, but Kim primarily spoke in Korean through a translator, the report said.

Rodman arrived in Pyongyang on Monday with three members of the professional Harlem Globetrotters basketball team.

The unlikely encounter makes Rodman the most high-profile American to meet Kim since the young North Korean leader took power in December 2011, and takes place against a backdrop of tension between Washington and Pyongyang, the report said.

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