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Article snippet: TOKYO — Forty-one years ago, Antonio Inoki, one of Japan’s most popular professional wrestlers, faced off against Muhammad Ali in a bout that critics called a farcical publicity stunt. This week, some commentators leveled similar criticism at Mr. Inoki, now a 74-year-old member of Japan’s Parliament, as he returned from North Korea, where he said he had visited a zoo, sipped ginseng wine and discussed nuclear diplomacy with high-ranking officials. “He told me Pyongyang will continue its nuclear testing and take it to a higher level unless the global community, especially the U.S., stops applying pressure,” Mr. Inoki told reporters at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, referring to Ri Su-yong, a vice chairman of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party of Korea. Though Mr. Inoki — a flamboyant ex-athlete with a taste for self-promotion — has been in politics for decades, in some ways he is Japan’s equivalent of Dennis Rodman, the former N.B.A. star who has made numerous visits to North Korea. It is a sign of North Korea’s international isolation — and the limited avenues available to understand it, much less influence it — that Mr. Inoki and Mr. Rodman are among the world’s few links to the leadership of Pyongyang’s opaque, authoritarian state. Mr. Inoki’s five-day trip to North Korea last week was his 32nd since 1995, when he participated in a wrestling match in Pyongyang. In an interview this week in his Parliament offices, Mr. Inoki — sitting near a life-size cutout of himself ... Link to the full article to read more