WomenCrossDMZ peace activists were taken on a “boilerplate” propaganda march of Pyongyang by a body well-known for cultivating relations with North Korea sympathizer groups, observers said Tuesday.

Instead of being an example of “citizen-to-citizen diplomacy,” the North Korean hosts of the WomenCrossDMZ delegation would have facilitated it “for domestic propaganda reasons,” said Curtis Melvin, a researcher at the U.S. Korea-Institute in Washington, D.C.

“The Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, or ‘Taemun’ as it is known in the DPRK, is the group that ran (Christine) Ahn’s ’march’ and they are the same people that handle Alejandro (Cao de Benos) and manage his programs,” Melvin said.

Cao de Benos is