UNDATED (CBS) - At a time of rising tension between the United States and North Korea, one might not think of sending Dennis Rodman to be a special envoy.

But that's essentially what he'll be for the next week. The outrageous former NBA legend plans to use "basketball diploimacy."

Dennis Rodman has probably not had this kind of reception since his playing days as "The Worm".

But at Pyongyang's Airport, Rodman was greeted by dignitaries and camera crews eager to hear from the pierced and tattooed basketball bad boy. He says, "We got invited and we just came over to have some fun and hopefully, you know, it'd be some fun!"

Rodman arrived in North Korea with members of the Harlem Globe Trotters. They are there to run youth basketball camps and tape an episode of the HBO show "Vice".

Although it's not clear Rodman even knows where he is. On Tuesday he tweeted he wanted to meet "Gangnam Style" stinger Psy, a pop star from South Korea.

David Sanger, New York Times chief Washington correspondent and author of "Confront & Conceal" says, "Well it's a little crazy to have Dennis Rodman in North Korea. And what I think that tells you is that the new leader Kim Jong-un, is clearly attempting to show that he is a different kind of leader."

Jong-un reportedly excelled at basketball when he was a student in Switzerland. His father, Kim Jong-il, was such a fan of the Chicago Bulls that Madeline Albright once gave him a Michael Jordan autographed basketball. Rodman won three NBA championships with the Bulls.

The basketball bad-boy is one of the best rebounders and defenders to ever play the game and definitely it's most colorful. .

Like Google chief Eric Schmidt's visit in January, which followed a provocative rocket launch, Rodman arrived in the hermit kingdom at a sensitive time, just two weeks after an underground nuclear weapons test. Sanger says, "We're at one of those odd points where the U.S. government and North Korean government can't talk to each other, but by reaching out in this way, there's a hope of sort of breaking the ice." Between one eccentric personality and another.