20 Surfers Invited By North Korea’s Kim Jong Un For An Eight-Day Surf Tour To Evaluate Eastern Coastline
20 professional surfers were invited on Monday to participate in an eight-day surf tour in North Korea. Invited surfers from the US, Italy, China and Germany will be led by Italian champion Nicola Zanella to assess the eastern coastline of the country.
Aside from assessing the eastern coastline, the members of the surf group will also be "exploring the quality of the beaches, seabeds and waves, as well as examining access, evacuation routes and weather patterns," Telegraph reports on Monday.
Also, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un launches the surf tour in hopes that North Korea would be known as a surfing destination, International Business Times forecasts on the same day.
Uri Tours together with the North Korean tourist board organized the visit of the professional surfers in the country, which aims to help North Korea on the possibility of making the country into a surfing hub.
Meanwhile, Zanella sees a possibility of good surf in Majong beach, which is located on the northern east coast. Also, the Italian champion is positive that North Korea could be turned into a surfing hotspot after studying the country's beaches and bays for a year through satellite imagery.
"Wave quality is pretty much the same as in South Korea and in continental China: favorable conditions for beginners and intermediate surfers, with plenty of safe easy beach breaks," says Zanella, according to a report Friday on Outside Online.
"I'm also sure that there are great point break waves along the east coast, the kind of waves that professionals like to ride."
Zanella suggested the surf trip last year to Uri Tours founder and CEO, Andrea Lee, who delivered the proposal to North Korean officials who are in-charge on the approval of tours in the country.
"The proposal for the surf trip was really well received by the DPRK authorities," says Lee. "They want to develop surf tourism as much as we do."
Aside from the assessment of North Korea's eastern coastline, the surf trip will also include stopovers in Juche Tower, Mansudae Grand Monument and the Korean Demilitarized Zone.
