Ex-NBA star Rodman says North Korea's Kim wants Obama to call

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Dennis Rodman, the former NBA star known more for his body piercings and tattoos than international diplomacy skills, said on Sunday he returned from North Korea with a message from its leader Kim Jong-un for President Barack Obama - "call me."

Rodman appeared on ABC's "This Week" program a few days after an unlikely meeting with Kim in the North Korea capital Pyongyang, where Rodman was working on a documentary about basketball.

With the international community concerned about North Korea's nuclear weapons program and continued belligerence, Kim and Rodman attended a game, where they were seen laughing and talking, and had dinner together.

"He wants Obama to do one thing - call him," Rodman said. "He said, 'If you can, Dennis - I don't want (to) do war. I don't want to do war.' He said that to me."

Rodman said he told Kim, who followed his father and grandfather as leader of the totalitarian nation in December 2011, that his love of basketball could serve as a foundation of a relationship with the U.S. president, who also is a basketball fan and plays regularly.

"(Kim) loves basketball. And I said the same thing. I said, ‘Obama loves basketball.' Let's start there," Rodman said.

The U.S. government has disavowed any connection with Rodman's trip.

Last week, Rodman spoke warmly of Kim, 30, and described him as "an awesome kid."

On "This Week," he defended his new friendship with a man considered a violator of human rights and a threat to world peace by saying, "I'm not apologizing for him. You know, he's a good guy to me. Guess what? He's my friend. I don't condone what he does ... (but) as a person to person - he's my friend."

When pressed on North Korea's human rights record, Rodman said, "But as far as what he does, you deal with it."

Rodman, appearing in the interview wearing a jacket covered with images of U.S. dollars, a baseball cap and big sunglasses, dismissed Kim's comments about wanting to destroy the United States as rhetoric stemming from his father.

He called him a strong and "very humble" man who "loves power, he loves control."

Rodman said he intends to return to North Korea someday.

Rodman played on five NBA championship teams during his basketball career, which ran from 1986 to 2000. He played for five teams and in his peak years he was the league's top rebounder and one of its best defenders. He was chosen for the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011.

Rodman's basketball skills were matched by his flamboyance - party lifestyle, multi-colored hair, blankets of tattoos, piercings in his ears, nose, lips and eyebrows and showing up in a wedding gown, complete with veil, to promote his autobiography.

(Editing by Will Dunham)