A firm that organises tours to North Korea has signed a sponsorship deal with Blyth Spartans, in one of English football’s more unlikely commercial tie-ups.

Non-league Blyth, who play in the National League North – English football’s sixth tier – announced that Visit North Korea had bought a pitch-side advertising board that was unveiled this week at the club’s home ground Croft Park.

The announcement appeared in Blyth’s match-day programme before the club’s home draw with Spennymoor Town on Boxing Day. Links to Visit North Korea will also appear on Blyth’s website and social media accounts.

Officials at Blyth, located near Newcastle upon Tyne in Northumberland, were “very friendly, professional and enthusiastic” about the deal, according to Tom Fowdy, who founded Visit North Korea in 2015.

“Their commercial manager told me the chairman was open minded, so it was something they were more than willing to participate in,” Fowdy, a Sunderland fan, told the Guardian. “Football sponsorship was something I felt inspired to do, and I was confident that as a well-known, local grassroots club, Blyth was the best place to start.”

The Visit North Korea website noted that spectators had quickly spotted the board and “were bewildered by what they saw”.

The deal drew a mixed reaction on social media, with some questioning the wisdom of encouraging travel to a country that has been widely criticised for its human rights abuses.

The Non League Nomads Twitter account asked if it was “the oddest advert seen at a football ground”.

But Blyth’s commercial manager, Mark Scott, said the agreement did not amount to an endorsement of the North Korean regime.

“Who am I to judge?” Scott told the Chronicle. “The guy running [Visit North Korea] is going over to visit the country, not shake hands with Kim Jong-un, so we have no problem with it.”

The sponsorship deal is not the north-east’s first connection with North Korean football.

In 1966 the North Koreans carried off one of the biggest shocks in World Cup history by beating Italy 1-0 at Middlesbrough’s Ayresome Park, before being knocked out by Portugal in the quarterfinals.

Fowdy, who is based in China, admitted the board’s appearance had caused “shock and surprise” among Blyth supporters, but added: “I’ve come into contact with a few Blyth fans who welcome the deal and are interested in Visit North Korea. Above all it’s bringing coverage, attention and recognition to their town and team.”

The firm’s focus, he said, was on “education, travel, cultural exchange and positive engagement” with North Korea. “Rather than pursue confrontation and hostility, we encourage people to broaden their horizons and think differently.”

UK citizens are free to travel to North Korea, where Britain has an embassy, but Americans were banned from visiting the country following the death last year of Otto Warmbier. The college student died soon after being released from 17 months’ captivity in the North.

Washington is considering easing its travel restrictions to North Korea to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the impoverished country.