No, this isn’t one of our White Lies… The news that Terje Haakonsen has signed up for a trip to North Korea’s ski resort is 100% true.

With Mike Rav and Danimals in tow – as well as up to 15 paying members of the public – the Sprocking Cat will be visiting the Masik Pass resort this weekend. The itinerary includes a visit to the giant bronze statues of previous DPRK premiers Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il – where, according to the press release, “visitors are asked to follow local custom by bowing and laying flowers at the feet of the statues”.

Then a helicopter will whisk the crew off to Masik Pass for three days of riding the resort’s whopping ten runs. No word yet on whether or not Kim Jong Un himself will join them for a shred, but if he’s anywhere near as good at snowboarding as his father was at golf, Terje & co. may witness something pretty special.

There are two ways of looking at this: either the idea of indulging the regime’s attempts to market a luxury resort is gifting them an ill-deserved PR win; or – much like the Pyongyang Marathon – it’s a way to show the notoriously secretive state that there are advantages to opening up.

Either way, fingers crossed the crew doesn’t do anything that will require getting bailed out by Bill Clinton. And if nothing else, it’s more ammunition to use against Alta’s snowboarding ban – “even North Korea let us in, you dicks!”

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.