Basketball star defends gift for Kim

Dennis Rodman, the former American basketball star, has defended his decision to play an exhibition game in North Korea as a birthday gift for the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un.

Rodman has rebuffed criticism that he is pandering to a ruthless dictator, who just had his own uncle executed and continues to hold a fellow American, Kenneth Bae, for unspecified “anti-state crimes”.

So far no other announcements have been made about Kim’s birthday.

Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett reports from Seoul in South Korea.