Rodman 'sorry' about North Korea situation

Dennis Rodman said Monday that he's "sorry" about the situation inside North Korea, but that his recent visit there with a team of fellow former NBA players was an attempt to do something good. The American basketball players stirred controversy last week by playing in a game at a packed stadium in Pyongyang, a surreal event at which Rodman led a sing-along of "Happy Birthday" to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Rodman has been criticized for failing to address North Korean's human rights abuses during his well-publicized visits to the reclusive country during which he has developed a friendly relationship with Kim. "I'm sorry for what's going on in North Korea, the certain situations," Rodman told CNN on Monday after arriving at Beijing airport from Pyongyang. "I'm not God, I'm not (an) ambassador, I'm no one. I just want to show the world the fact that we can actually get along in sport. That is it!" He didn't specify what he meant by "certain situations" in North Korea, a country where horrific human rights abuses have been reported and as many as 200,000 people are estimated to be kept in political prison camps. 'I love America' Rodman has described Kim, whose once powerful uncle was recently purged and executed, as a friend and a "very good guy." He said he was happy that by playing basketball with and in front of North Koreans -- an approach dubbed "basketball diplomacy" -- he and his fellow players had tried to "do something good for the world." But Rodman said he was sad that "everyone is trying to break this down, to push it on me." "I don't know why," he said. "I haven't done anything wrong. Nothing wrong!" And he rejected suggestions that he had betrayed his country by befriending a dictator whose regime's rhetoric describes the United States as a mortal enemy. "I love America. I love my country." he said. "I'd never damage my country." No money from North Korea One of Rodman's teammates from the trip, Charles Smith, insisted Sunday that the former NBA players weren't paid by the repressive North Korean regime. "Absolutely not. I think I am astute enough to understand the dynamics, especially collecting monetary dollars from North Korea. No, we did not get paid from North Korea at all," he told CNN in a lengthy exclusive interview on "New Day Sunday." Smith, who retired from the NBA in 1997 after nine seasons, said an Irish online betting company and a documentary film crew paid expenses for the ex-players turned hoops ambassadors. Last month, the Irish company, Paddy Power, said it had removed its name from Rodman's project after the execution of Kim's uncle and top aide, Jang Song Thaek. But it said it would honor its "contractual commitments" to the team. Speaking by satellite from Beijing, Smith said it wasn't about the money. He saw it as an opportunity to go to a reclusive country and exchange cultural information with other athletes and citizens. But he didn't see it as a birthday present for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. "That's the date that was set. I didn't know it was his birthday," he said in the half-hour interview. "And it didn't matter to me once I found out that it was his birthday." American held captive Smith said he felt for Rodman, who asked for his help organizing the trip and who really seemed to want to pull off a big event. "I saw the pressure mount. I saw him change, and it was very difficult keeping him and everyone together (once controversy began over traveling to North Korea)," he said. The players' trip also met with criticism because North Korea still holds Kenneth Bae, a U.S. citizen who was sentenced last year to 15 years in a labor camp on charges he planned "hostile acts" intended to topple the government. Some observers wondered whether the players would advocate for his release, but they didn't -- at least not publicly. "We didn't go there for that. We went there to do what we normally do, and that's to be cross-cultural ambassadors and use the game of basketball as a bridge for exchange," he said.