Rodman, in an interview with CNN before landing in North Korea, said he was "trying to accomplish something we both need", referring to himself and the Trump administration.
He said the issue of several Americans currently detained by North Korea is "not my objective right now".
Former NBA star Dennis Rodman, who has been criticized by human rights groups for traveling to North Korea, headed to the reclusive country again, according to reports Monday.
This trip marks at least Rodman's fourth visit to the communist state, three of which took place between 2013 and 2014, according to CNN. Four Americans are also now detained in North Korea. Bae, returned home in November 2014, later thanked Rodman as the "catalyst" for his release.
Warmbier has been in a coma for more than a year, since shortly after his last public appearance during his trial in Pyongyang in March 2016.
Tensions have heightened on the Korean peninsula over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests and its vow to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the us mainland.
Tillerson also said that Otto Warmbier was on his way back to the US, according to USA news reports.
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Warmbier, 22, a University of Virginia student from suburban Cincinnati, was on his way back to the United States, Tillerson said in a statement.
CNN reports that, while the connection between Rodman's trip to North Korea and the service PotCoin.com provides is not entirely clear, the company has already benefitted from the news: "the currency's value has jumped more than 60% since Monday to around 17 US cents, according to industry website CoinMarketCap.com". Rodman had tweeted in May 2013 that he wanted Kim to "cut Kenneth Bae loose", referring to the South Korean-born US citizen imprisoned with 15 years' hard labor at the time.
"At the direction of the president, the Department of State has secured the release of Otto Warmbier from North Korea", Tillerson said.
Americans are regarded as enemies in North Korea because the two countries never signed a peace treaty to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War. "They've been looking at ways to do that", Daniel Pinkston, a North Korea analyst, told Washington Post. Rodman has said he practices "basketball diplomacy"; it is not clear whether he spoke on Warmbier's behalf.
"I was trying to get this game going and get everything going in North Korea", Rodman told the AP then. The U.S. citizen has since been released and en route to the United States. But Trump called Rodman's trip in 2013 "smart, " and said Rodman was "street-wise", adding that it might not be a bad idea to pick up the phone when the "world is blowing up around us".
The trip comes at a time of heightened tensions between the USA and North Korea, which has conducted missile tests and detained four American citizens. Fowle left a Bible in a local club hoping a North Korean would find it, which is considered a criminal offense in North Korea.
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