player with a colorful background who sports multiple piercings and tattoos. In February 2013, Rodman and three Harlem Globetrotters were recruited by Vice Media to play an exhibition game in North Korea. Kim made a surprise visit and sat next to Rodman—making him the first American to meet Kim. Rodman told him, “You have a friend for life.” Afterward, Kim and Rodman partied together at one of his villas and Kim reportedly invited the player back to North Korea; Rodman would subsequently make three more trips. Photos of the two of them laughing and joking together were splashed across multiple news media, an incredible juxtaposition of a dictator threatening nuclear war with an iconoclastic U.S. basketball player, who at six foot seven towered over the pudgy, five-foot-seven Kim.
Rodman’s second trip took place in September 2013, sponsored this time by an Irish bookmaking firm, as if the whole situation required an additional element of absurdity. He spent time with Kim and his family at their private resort in Wonsan and met Kim’s daughter, Ju Ae, then an infant, confirming for the first time that Kim had at least one child with his wife Ri Sol Ju. The men partied for seven days, drinking and smoking cigars and spending time on Kim’s two-hundred-foot yacht, a “cross between a ferry and a Disney Boat,” according to Rodman. “It’s like going to Hawaii or Ibiza, but [Kim’s] the only one that lives there,” he added. His was a rare firsthand glimpse of the full extent of Kim’s lavish lifestyle and wealth.
Kim’s very public camaraderie with Rodman created an international stir, reinforcing the growing perception of the young leader as the erratic, eccentric, and immature head of a nuclear-armed country. This series of events reminded me of Heuer’s warning: “Too frequently, foreign behavior appears ‘irrational’ or ‘not in their own best interest’ ” because we project American values onto foreign leaders rather than try to understand the thinking behind their actions. If we view it from Kim’s perspective, his surprising friendship can be seen as a way to show his senior leadership and external audiences that he will do as he pleases, poking a thumb in the eye of those who might criticize his behavior. But it also likely reflected his desire to connect with someone who was decidedly apolitical, who didn’t care about the North’s belligerent approach or judge Kim for his pursuit of nuclear weapons or his country’s human rights violations. He might have been eager to show a more approachable side of his personality and to demonstrate that he was more than a despot who was only interested in punishing rather than having fun. After all, Kim had been a U.S. basketball fan since he was a carefree child—and showcasing the country’s modernity using Rodman as a vehicle was a clever way to broadcast those desired optics.
Kim was also eager to show off his magnanimity toward the only other foreigner who had significant personal interaction with him in those first six years of his rule. Kenji Fujimoto, who was Kim Jong Il’s sushi chef and Jong Un’s playmate when he was a child, defected in 2001, escaping during a trip to Tokyo to procure sea urchin for Jong Il’s insatiable appetite. Fujimoto had been supplementing his living by selling his remembrances about his time spent in North Korea’s inner circle, but he also lived in fear of North Korean agents who were known to track down and intimidate or kill defectors. But instead of a hit squad, Kim Jong Un sent an invitation, wrapped in red velvet, for Fujimoto to visit Pyongyang. As he recounted to The Washington Post, Kim Jong Un welcomed him with open arms, as Fujimoto wept and bowed, apologetically telling Kim, “I, Fujimoto the betrayer, have now come back.” To his relief and gratitude, Kim said, “It’s okay, it’s okay,” as they hugged and the older man cried on Kim’s shoulder.
Kim Jong Un’s warmth toward both Rodman and Fujimoto—individuals he’d admired during his childhood—and the fact that he chose to have his closest interactions with only these two foreigners on his home turf in the entirety of his first six years in power suggest that he was not ready or comfortable to engage with the outside world as he crafted his persona as North Korea’s new leader. Kim came from a line of dictators who were expert in theater. But while he made an effort to show a kinder, gentler Kim, he was superficially glossing over the systematic