Since South Korea has withdrawn from Kaesong Industrial Park, it seemed North Korea has hard time in finding economic engagements with the outside world. However, it was a pretty surprise news that designer jeans was going to be sold as of today in department store in Sweden that have been manufactured in North Korea.

It is the NoKo brand, which is the abbreviation of North Korea. The NoKo jeans are products of a joint venture between Swedish entrepreneurs and a North Korean firm, and its Swedish founders are three young kids who are under 25 years old. The interesting story behind the kids is they started the business not because they wanted to be a CEO of would-be-a big company with great fortune taking advantage of low wages, rather they started with a simple desire to get to know about North Korea better. Not only that, but they hoped their jeans would help break North Korea’s isolation through increased trade with other counties. The kids just sent an email with their business proposal to authorities in North Korea and surprisingly the authorities approved the proposal with these novice entrepreneurs. I thought this kind of engagement surely reduce tensions that North Korea has with the outside world, but here’s a sad news.

The Swedish department store removed the NoKo line saying “This is not the forum for the discussion of North Korea”. However, something smells me what the store management had informed the decision just 30 minutes before the launch for. This is kind of shame. One of the kids said today “This is not a support project for Kim Jong Il, but is a way for us to get closer to the country and, in a controversial fashion, shake this isolation up a bit”.

The trio is looking for a new place to sell the jeans. Nevertheless, for those of you who want to try on their jeans, you may want to take a look at the internet mall at http://nokojeans.com. The jeans are made and trimmed by factory workers in Pyongyang, while the materials are imported.