Love North Korea Ministries (LNKM), a Christian NGO operating in North Korea, was behind the first ever “surf camp” tour of the country, LNKM director Gabe Segoine told NK News in an interview on Monday.

A surfing tour to the country’s east coast, which ran between July 28 and August 6 and subsequently publicized by state media, was organized by LNKM in partnership with Surfing The Nations (STN) and hosted by North Korea’s tourism bureau, the Korea International Travel Company (KITC).

According to the LNKM website the goal of the camp was to “use surfing as a cultural bridge to