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Human rights group wants Rodman out of Hall of Fame for North Korea ties

REUTERS/Thomas Peter / Action Images

A human rights organization is trying to remove Dennis Rodman from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame over his ties with North Korea.

The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation started a petition on Change.org, which had a little over 600 supporters as of Wednesday morning.

Rodman recently returned from another trip to North Korea, one of a handful the American has taken to the isolated dictatorship in the last few years.

"Celebrities like this are used by totalitarian dictatorships to whitewash the nature of that regime," VOC executive director Marion Smith told TMZ.

Rodman has associated with, and spoken highly of, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, something that doesn't sit well with many Koreans. The five-time NBA champion brought Kim a copy of President Donald Trump's book, "The Art of the Deal," on his most recent trip.

Rodman was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2011.

The most recent controversy in the tense relationship between the United States and North Korea is the death of American college student Otto Warmbier. He spent 17 months as a prisoner in North Korea before being medically evacuated to the U.S. in a coma last week, and died Monday.

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