美国有线新闻 CNN 2013-03-07

 Keep them honest tonight with a guy talking about his new buddy¹.

"He is a good guy to me, guess what? He is my friend."

He is my friend, that's Dennis Rodman, and this is Dennis Rodman's new friend. His name is Kim, Dennis is a pro-basketball hall of famer, Mr.Kim is not, he's got other hobbies, but he is a fan. So when Dennis, members of the Harlem Globetrotters and a production team from vice² media visited Kim last week. Mr.Kim and his crew really show their affection for the player and the game, Dennis tweeted, quote, "They love basketball here, honored to represent the United States for America."

Here in this case, is North Korea, and Kim is North Korea's new dictator Kim Jong-un. His other hobbies includes testing nuclear weapons, building rockets to carry them anywhere in the world, and threatening to use them on Dennis's home and, well, I'll let the North Korean spokesman finish that one.

"In the upcoming order action, a new phase of the anti-U.S struggle that has lasted century after century will target against the U.S, the sworn enemy of the Korean people."

Not very friendly, is it? Oh by the way, Kim Jong-un also maintains a whole network of concentration camps where tens of thousands of people are all housed and die of starvation and disease and neglect and execution. Kim Jong-un is belligerent³ towards the United States, he's downright vicious to his own people. According to human rights watch, Kim's rise to power since the death of his father, quote, "Has had no positive impact on the country's dire⁴ human rights record."

More than 200,000 North Koreans it's estimated, including children, living starving and dying in forced labor⁵ camps, concentration camps, really, many will spend their entire lives from cradle-to-grave behind barbed wire. Outside the wire, this is a country with a history of government imposed mass starvation that continues to this day. Millions died in the 90s, even now, North Korean dissidents tell of smaller families throughout the country.

Old people abandoned for lack of food, even children being killed and eaten. It's not just when they take, by the way, a political prisoner and they send them to concentration camps, they don't just send that person, they send three generations of that person's families. The only country in the world that has this draconian⁶ punishment.

That and always random⁷ terror and imprisonment⁸ and torture, all of which, in fact, any of which, would make a chilling backdrop to Dennis Rodman's visit. It certainly makes a mockery that of the PR footage and happy tweets.

As you saw at the top, Rodman appeared this weekend on ABC's this week, defending his friend and the trip.

"Guess what, I don't condone⁹ what he does, but as far as person to person, he's my friend, I supposed what he does..."

"Someone who hypothetically is a murder, who's your friend is still a murder."

"Well, you know, it is seriously, you know, I do, guess what, guess what, what I did, what I did, was history, was history, and guess what, it's just like we do over here in America, right? It's amazing that we have presidents over here doing the same thing, right? It's amazing Bill Clinton can do one thing have sex with his Secretary, and do one thing, and really get away with it and still be powerful..."

"How can you compare that to prison camps?"

"Now prison camp do one thing, we don't need to do one thing. Object that, but only do it, object that, but guess what? We do one thing, friend to friend, right? It's a friend to friend, he's a friend to me, that's about it."

He doesn't make any sense, he says he's going back, by the way, he also says wants president Obama to call him.

The United States has direct channels of communications with the DPRK, and instead of spending money on celebrity¹⁰ sporting events to entertain the elites¹¹ of that country, the North Korea regime should focus on the well being of its own people who have been starved, imprisoned¹² and denied their human rights.

1 buddy   

n.（美口）密友，伙伴

参考例句：

• Calm down,buddy.What's the trouble?压压气，老兄。有什么麻烦吗？
• Get out of my way,buddy!别挡道了，你这家伙！

2 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

3 belligerent   

adj.好战的，挑起战争的；n.交战国，交战者

参考例句：

• He had a belligerent aspect.他有种好斗的神色。
• Our government has forbidden exporting the petroleum to the belligerent countries.我们政府已经禁止向交战国输出石油。

4 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。

5 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

6 draconian   

adj.严苛的；苛刻的；严酷的；龙一样的

参考例句：

• You can't expect the people to obey such draconian regulations.你不能指望人民服从如此严苛的规定。
• The city needs a draconian way of dealing with robbers.这个城市需要一个严苛的办法来对付强盗。

7 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

8 imprisonment   

n.关押，监禁，坐牢

参考例句：

• His sentence was commuted from death to life imprisonment.他的判决由死刑减为无期徒刑。
• He was sentenced to one year's imprisonment for committing bigamy.他因为犯重婚罪被判入狱一年。

9 condone   

v.宽恕；原谅

参考例句：

• I cannot condone the use of violence.我不能宽恕使用暴力的行为。
• I will not condone a course of action that will lead us to war.我绝不允许任何导致战争的行为。

10 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。

11 elites   

精华( elite的名词复数 )； 精锐； 上层集团； （统称）掌权人物

参考例句：

• The elites are by their nature a factor contributing to underdevelopment. 这些上层人物天生是助长欠发达的因素。
• Elites always detest gifted and nimble outsiders. 社会名流对天赋聪明、多才多艺的局外人一向嫌恶。

12 imprisoned   

下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was imprisoned for two concurrent terms of 30 months and 18 months. 他被判处30个月和18个月的监禁，合并执行。
• They were imprisoned for possession of drugs. 他们因拥有毒品而被监禁。