莫名的籃球外交 讓人霧裡看花
摘錄自：天下雜誌 經濟學人電子報 2013/1/17
2014-01-13 Web only 作者：經濟學人
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| 圖片來源：flickr.com/photos/ye-wa/ |
1月8日聚集在平壤室內運育場的群眾，不太像是來看籃球賽的觀眾。交手雙方分別為北韓隊，以及前美國NBA球星和街頭籃球手組成的隊伍；14,000人穿西裝打領帶，填滿了體育場的座位，掌聲亦經過精心安排。但在金正恩進入體育館之後，氣氛亦大為改變；前職業球員羅德曼（Dennis Rodman）表示，那真的非常驚人，讓人體會到金正恩在這個國家究竟擁有多大的權力。
這場賽事主要由羅德曼（Dennis
Rodman）促成，這是他第4次來到北韓。羅德曼是與金正恩會面的美國人中最知名的一個，或許也讓他在不知不覺中成了重要的外交人員。羅德曼稱此為「籃球外交」，認為這是個與北韓進行文化交流的機會，並表示此行沒有政治動機。
不過，這次造訪北韓還是在引來了批評。美國國會議員恩格爾（Eliot
Engel）認為這場表演賽就像是邀請希特勒共進午餐，NBA總裁史騰（David Stern）亦表示，運動賽事雖然可以協助建立橋樑，但這場比賽並非如此。
這一切都嚇不退羅德曼。他在公開演說的最後，為金正恩演唱生日快樂歌作結；據信金正恩目前應該30出頭，但關於金正恩的一切都不是那麼明朗。球賽下半場，羅德曼坐到了金正恩身旁，據羅德曼表示，他們聊的主要是籃球，亦計畫在夏季舉辦更大型的表演賽。接著，金正恩便邀請羅德賽等人一同滑雪。
不過，這似乎不太可能協助重建北韓與美國的官方關係。韓戰結束後，兩國的關係一直不好，神秘又難以預期的北韓政治令人不安，美國人亦無法接受其核武計畫。1月7日，美國宣佈，除了已駐守於南韓的2.8萬名士兵外，將增派800名士兵和40輛戰車，以維持朝鮮半島的安全。
而在平壤，無法親臨球賽的人可以在報紙上讀到這場比賽的報導，也可以在電視上觀賞比賽。一位不願透露真名的北韓民眾認為，羅德曼現身應該對美國與北韓的關係有些幫助；她個人認為羅德曼臉上的穿環有些瘋狂，但她亦指出，金正恩似乎對羅德曼不尋常地友好。羅德曼已經成為美國最令人意外的外交人員了。（黃維德譯）
©The Economist Newspaper Limited 2014
The Economist
Americans in North Korea
Strangest of
bedfellows
By The Economist
From The Economist
Published: January 13, 2014
Jan 9th 2014, 10:54 by The Economist | PYONGYANG
THE crowd gathered at the Pyongyang Indoor Stadium on January 8th made
unlikely spectators for a basketball game. Dressed in suits and ties, the
14,000 people filling the stands in North Korea's capital held neither hotdogs
nor giant foam fingers. Applause for the two squads, a motley crew of former
American National Basketball Association (NBA) stars and street-ball players,
and then the North Korean team, was tightly orchestrated. But when the
country's young leader, Kim Jong Un, entered the stadium, the atmosphere
changed. "It's just really shocking, an overwhelming experience to see how
much power that guy has in this country," said Dennis Rodman, the
provocative former professional American player who was chiefly responsible for
the spectacle. "All [Mr Kim] has to do is get up and they go nuts."
This is Mr Rodman's fourth trip to North Korea, an ostentatious tour
with an athletic entourage which is estimated to cost his hosts about $1m. He
is the highest-profile American to have met the youthful Mr Kim, and this has
cast Mr Rodman into a position of perhaps unwitting ambassadorial significance.
He labels his own visits as "basketball diplomacy", an opportunity
for cultural exchange with the secretive state. He claims to have no political
motive.
But his visits have drawn criticism from near and far by people who
worry about North Korea's appalling human-rights record and its pursuit of a
nuclear arsenal. In a last-minute appeal in which he asked Mr Rodman to abandon
the charade, Eliot Engel, an American congressman, likened playing the
exhibition game to inviting Hitler to lunch. "What you seem to be implying
is that business as usual is OK. That it's OK to enslave people. That it is OK
to torture people," Mr Engel told Mr Rodman through an interview with the
New York Times. David Stern of the NBA distanced his organisation from the
excursion, saying that although sporting events can be helpful in bridging
divides, this one is not. Mr Rodman has also been rebuked for failing to use
his influence to assist Kenneth Bae, an American missionary who has been
detained in North Korea for "anti-state" crimes. (He compounded the
sense of insult with an apparently drunken rant against Mr Bae, during a live
interview with CNN from Pyongyang. The next day Mr Rod man explained that
indeed he had been feeling tired and emotional, and apologised.)
None of this deterred Mr Rodman during the match. Ever flamboyant, the
tattooed 52-year-old alumnus of the Chicago Bulls rounded off a curious public
address by singing "Happy Birthday" to the "marshal", using
Mr Kim's local honorific. It is believed that Mr Kim is in his early 30s, but
like so much else about the dictator, who inherited power when his father, Kim
Jong Il, died in 2011, the details are murky. "Yes he is a great leader,
he provides for his people here in this country and thank God the people here
love the marshal," Mr Rodman somewhat incoherently told the crowd, which
included Mr Kim, his wife Ri Sol Ju, a rare appearance for his brother, Kim
Jong Chol, and plenty of senior officials. As a birthday present, Mr Rodman
presented Mr Kim with five bottles of Bad Ass Vodka, his own brand, with their
images etched into the glass.
Joining Mr Rodman on court were six former NBA players, most of them
past their playing prime and well into their 40s. They might include a few
names familiar to American basketball enthusiasts of the 1990s (Sleepy Floyd
stands out), but today they are invested in more diverse pursuits. Vin Baker's
professional career came to an end over a battle with alcoholism; he is now a
pastor at a church in New York. Doug Christie has lately been overshadowed by
his wife's participation in a reality-television show, "Basketball Wives
L.A.". Last year an ex-All Star, Kenny Anderson, lost his job coaching high
school basketball after he was arrested on suspicion of driving drunk. Other
members of the squad included Cliff Robinson, Craig Hodges, Charles D. Smith as
well as four never-pro players.
In the first half of the friendly game, which Rodman dedicated to his
"best friend" (the birthday boy, of course), the Americans scored
just 39 points, losing to the North Koreans' 47. (One spectator judged that the
Americans had rather "phoned it in".) In the second half the teams
were mixed and Mr Rodman sat beside Mr Kim. Their discussion was chiefly about
basketball, according to Mr Rodman, including plans for a more ambitious game
in the summer: for an audience of 120,000. Mr Kim then invited Mr Rodman and a
small delegation to go skiing at the recently constructed resort in the remote
east of the country, Masik Pass, which is said to have opened on January 1st.
All of this is very cosy, at least for the strange-looking men
involved. But it seems unlikely to be helpful in re-establishing official
relations between North Korea and America, despite Mr Rodman's hopes. There is
a long way to go. The two countries have been estranged since the Korean War
ended, more than 60 years ago. The secretive and unpredictable nature of North
Korea's politics is unnerving, and its nuclear-weapons programme unacceptable
to the Americans. The dramatic purge of Jang Song Thaek, Mr Kim's uncle, who
was abruptly executed in December, has done nothing to soothe worries abroad,
as it revealed deep schisms within the upper echelons of the North Korean
state. On January 7th America announced that it would send another 800 soldiers
and 40 tanks to South Korea, in addition to the 28,000 troops it already has
stationed there, as part of the country's commitment to security on the
peninsula.
In Pyongyang those who were unable to attend the game could read about
it on the front page of the Rodong Sinmun, a state-run newspaper, or watch it
on television. Pak Ji Yoon, a North Korean national who would not give her real
name, guesses that while little is known about Mr Rodman, his presence is
"not bad" for the relations of the two countries involved. Ms Pak
personally finds Mr Rodman's facial piercings off-putting and "kind of
crazy", but she notes that Kim Jong Un seems unusually friendly towards
him. She would not be the first to say it: Mr Rodman has become America's least
likely diplomat.
©The Economist Newspaper Limited 2014
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