Ri Myung-hun
Ri Myung-hun (Korean: 리명훈; born 14 September 1967), also known as Michael Ri after his favorite basketball player Michael Jordan, is a North Korean former basketball player. At a height of and a weight of , he is believed to be the tallest person in North Korea. Basketball career Ri played the center position for the national basketball team of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Once proclaimed to be the tallest living human being in the world, he stands tall and once planned to play in the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the 1990s. According to the Associated Press, he was "the world's tallest basketball player." In anticipation of joining the NBA, Ri worked out in Canada, where he was scouted by numerous teams. But he was unable to play in the league because of a U.S. ban on trade set forth in a piece of legislation called the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917. The U.S. Department of State permitted Ri to compete in the country in 2000, on the main condition that none of Ri's salary could be repatriated to North Korea. North Korean officials responded by refusing to let Ri leave. Kim Jong-il told NBA