North Korean leader Kim Jong-un watched a basketball game with a former National Basketball Association (NBA) player in Pyongyang, local-based foreign media sources said Thursday.

Kim Jong-un, the first chairman of the National Defense Commission in North Korea, watched a basketball game between the Harlem Globetrotters and the North's U-18 squad with American Hall of Fame basketball player Dennis Rodman, according to Chinese state-run media Xinhua News Agency.

A day earlier, Rodman practiced with the Globetrotters and North Korean U-18 players at the Ryugyong Jong Ju Yong Gymnasium, the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Wednesday. 

Rodman is visiting the capital city of the communist nation for what his U.S. sponsors described as "basketball diplomacy" between U.S. and North Korea,

The U.S. state department has dismissed the notion of any sport diplomacy with the communist nation, calling Rodman's visit a "private trip." (Yonhap News)