“I’ll tell you guys one thing: take me seriously.” That was Dennis Rodman’s gloriously ironic closing remark during a press conference he held on Monday in New York City to announce that he would be training the North Korean national basketball team for the 2016 Olympics. The former NBA star visited Pyongyang for the second time in six months last week and again met with Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, whom he calls his “friend for life.”

Dennis Rodman broke some news on North Korean Kim Jong Un's baby daughter on Sunday during an interview with the Guardian. The former basketball player and current friend of the North Korean dictator said that he "held their baby Ju-ae and spoke with Ms Ri [Sol-Ju, Kim's wife] as well" while in the country this past week. While Rodman told reporters in March that Kim's wife had spoken about their daughter during his previous visit to the country, it looks like Rodman is stepping up the evidence of her existence.

It's basically a normal routine for Dennis Rodman now: have a banquet dinner, watch some basketball, and exchange gifts—with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, that is. The former NBA star returned to the Hermit Kingdom on Tuesday and, according to local news, is taking in the sights with Jong Un (whom he has called his "friend for life," even while using expletives to refer to Hillary Clinton and President Obama) and the dictator's wife.

North Korea has agreed to restore a cross-border military hotline with South Korea, in another sign of easing tensions between the rivals in recent weeks, the South Korean government has said. On Thursday, the two Koreas agreed at a meeting in Kaesong to restart the hotline starting Friday, Seoul's Unification Ministry said. North Korea in March shut down the telephone and fax lines used to coordinate cross-border travel to a joint industrial park in Kaesong that has since been shuttered.

I’m standing outside the Egyptian Palace nightclub in Pyongyang’s Yanggakdo Hotel, a place that promises all the advantages of a combination bar, nightclub, sauna and massage service, geared toward the tired and terminally lonely (which, like all other services at the Yanggakdo, means “foreigners only”). The only problem? It’s nearly midnight, and the bar is firmly, implacably closed.

Former basketball star Dennis Rodman arrived in Pyongyang Tuesday on a five-day visit amid speculation he may try to negotiate the release of jailed U.S. citizen Kenneth Bae, China's Xinhua news agency reported. In Beijing, the gateway for flights to Pyongyang, Rodman told Reuters he was on another "basketball diplomacy tour" and would not be discussing the release of Bae.

Part of President Barack Obama's argument for a military strike against Syria is a threat to broader U.S. security concerns in the Middle East and Asia. Secretary of State John Kerry says acting against Syria's use of chemical weapons matters far beyond its borders. "It is about whether Iran, which itself has been a victim of chemical weapons attacks, will now feel emboldened, in the absence of action, to obtain nuclear weapons," he said.

The case of a U.S. citizen jailed in North Korea is a human rights issue that has no connection to long-stalled talks over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons, the State Department said on Wednesday. Robert King, U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights issues, is slated to travel to Pyongyang on Friday. The State Department on Tuesday described his trip as a “humanitarian mission” aimed at winning the release of ailing Kenneth Bae, a Christian missionary and tour operator.