PYONGYANG, North Korea -- Former NBA star Dennis Rodman brought his basketball skills and flamboyant style -- neon-bleached hair, tattoos, nose studs and all -- on Tuesday to the isolated Communist country with possibly the world's drabbest dress code: North Korea.

Arriving in Pyongyang, the American athlete and showman known as "The Worm" became an unlikely ambassador for sports diplomacy at a time of heightened tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. Or maybe not so unlikely: Young leader Kim Jong Un is said to have been a fan of the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s, when Rodman won three championships with the club.

Dennis Rodman arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday, accompanying members of the Harlem Globetrotters, on a trip of basketball diplomacy. AP Photo/Kim Kwang Hyon

Rodman is joining three members of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team for a Vice Media production to air on HBO in early April, Vice founder Shane Smith told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview before the group's departure from Beijing.

"It's my first time, I think it's most of these guys' first time here, so hopefully everything's going to be OK , and hoping the kids have a good time for the game," Rodman told reporters after arriving in Pyongyang.

Rodman and Smith said the Americans hope to engage in a little "basketball diplomacy" by running a basketball camp for children and playing pickup games with locals, and by competing alongside top athletes of North Korea -- formally known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"Is sending the Harlem Globetrotters and Dennis Rodman to the DPRK strange? In a word, yes," said Smith, who is host of the upcoming series. "But finding common ground on the basketball court is a beautiful thing."

Rodman might seem an odd fit for an impoverished country where male fashion rarely ventures beyond military khaki and growing facial hair is forbidden. During his heyday in the 1990s, Rodman was a poster boy for excess. He called his 1996 autobiography "Bad as I Wanna Be" -- and showed up wearing a wedding dress to promote it.

Shown a photo of a snarling Rodman, piercings dangling from his lower lip and two massive tattoos emblazoned on his chest, one North Korean in Pyongyang recoiled and said: "He looks like a monster!"

But Rodman is also a Hall of Fame basketball player and one of the best defenders and rebounders to ever play the game. During a storied, often controversial career, he won five NBA championships -- a feat that quickly overshadowed his antics for at least one small North Korean group of basketball fans.

Rodman, now 51, was low-key and soft-spoken Tuesday in cobalt blue sweatpants and a Polo Ralph Lauren cap. There was a bit of flash: white-rimmed sunglasses and studs in his nose and lower lip. But he told AP he was there to teach basketball and talk to people, not to stir up trouble.

Showier were three Harlem Globetrotters dressed in fire-engine red. Rookie Moose Weekes flashed the crowd a huge smile as he made his way off the Air Koryo plane.

"We use the basketball as a tool to build cultural ties, build bridges among countries," said Buckets Blakes, a Globetrotters veteran. "We're all about happiness and joy and making people smile."