Dennis Rodman in North Korea

"Basketball diplomacy"

Dennis Rodman, famous for his rebounding on the court and his flamboyant, quirky persona off it, is not the typical cultural attache for the US. But that's the role he's playing this week in North Korea.

The Associated Press reports that Mr. Rodman's trip, made with three members of the Harlem Globetrotters, is a show of "basketball diplomacy" according to Vice Media founder Shane Smith, whose company is filming the trip for an HBO documentary set to air in April.