My favorite celebrity to visit North Korea was Muhammad Ali. He actually was there with pro wrestler Ric Flair for a World Peace sports festival in 1995. In Ric Flair’s autobiography, “To Be The Man”, the wrestler shares an anecdote about something in Pyongyang that made his hair stand up on his head:

Because of the ravages of Parkinson’s disease, it was difficult to understand Muhammad Ali when he spoke. But at one function, we were sitting at a big, round table with a group of North Korean luminaries when one of the guys started rambling on about the moral superiority of North Korea, and how they could take out the United States or Japan any time they wanted. Suddenly, Ali piped up, clear as a bell, “No wonder we hate these motherf*ckers.”

Just because he’s a freak doesn’t mean he can’t be a useful implement in a nation’s foreign policy. Last time I checked, Jackson, like you and me, had a U.S. passport.

If you think this notion is ridiculous, check East German archives about how the Stasi and the Freie Deutsche Jugend (“Free [e.g. communist] German Youth”) were freaking out about Bruce Springsteen back in the days of ’89.

I mean, since they couldn’t knock off Park back in the 60s, this was the most logical #2 option, right?