Dennis Rodman Meets North Korea's Kim Jung Un

Tonight, america has just witnessed a truly strange encounter. Who became the first american to meet with the new leader of north korea? The wild child of basketball, dennis rodman, right there,... See More

Tonight, america has just witnessed a truly strange encounter. Who became the first american to meet with the new leader of north korea? The wild child of basketball, dennis rodman, right there, splashed all over the front page of the newspaper with the new leader, kim jong-un. And our own john donvan items us why. Reporter: Dennis rodman's arrival in north korea early this week -- the diplomatic stunner of the year so far. A meeting by the basketball court with kim jung un. No american gets in to see the north korean ruler. Not even, say, google founder eric schmidt, whose visit was not well regarded by the u.S. Government. We don't think the timing of the visilarly helpful. Reporter: But maybe that's because schmidt was never an nba star. While one of the known things about the secretive kim's private life, from his days as a student at a swiss boarding SCHOOL IN THE '90s, IS THAT HE Was an nba nut. And he was especially big on rodman's old team, the bulls. And when "vice magazine" pitched north korea on bringing over rodman and some harlem globetrotters to do some exhibition play for its new hbo show, it was, "sure, come on in." And so, dennis rodman is there among the uniformly attired, stiff-faced north korean elite. The nba star, as known for his hair for his flamboyant outfit us, as for his hook shot. The hall of famer known at "the worm" has taken a shot at reality television. And some high profile romances. Toning it down a little bit over there, the worm played the "we're all just people here" card, telling a crowd that included kim, "you have a friend for life." Words that are being frowned upon by groups like human rights watch, given north korea's record for brutalizing its own people by starvation and imprisonment. But rodman had already tweeted this to the world from north korea. "I'm not a politician. Kim jong-un and north korean people are basketball fans and i love everyone. His tweet did not note that the use of twitter is forbidden to citizens of the country he was just coming to live. John donvan, abc news, washington.