Rodman, Globetrotters visit North Korea

PYONGYANG, North Korea, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- A delegation of 13 Harlem Globetrotters led by Dennis Rodman arrived in North Korea Tuesday for a weeklong visit and planned exhibition games, officials said.

The group of basketball players was welcomed by several North Korean senior sports officials at the airport in Pyongyang, China's Xinhua News Agency reported.

"All the players are so excited to visit the country, and it will be a great fun in interacting with the Korean people," Rodman told Xinhua.

The basketball players were invited to visit a month ago. It is the Harlem Globetrotters' 122nd stop on their current world tour, player Bull Bullard said.

"We are expecting to have great exchanges with the Korean kids and families which, we always love, no matter South or North," Bullard said.

"We are going to have big smiles and many handshakes and lots of entertainment with them," he added.

The number of exhibition matches the Globetrotters will perform was not reported.

Besides the sports events, the group is scheduled to visit Panmunjom on the border with South Korea and the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang, the North Korean Foreign Ministry reported.