Clothing manufactured in reclusive communist state to go on sale in Stockholm department store

This article is more than 10 years old

This article is more than 10 years old

It is a single party nation so suspicious of the outside world that it is nicknamed the hermit state.

But there may be signs of glasnost in North Korea after the totalitarian country agreed to export designer jeans to Sweden.

The jeans go on sale tomorrow in the upmarket PUB department store in Stockholm under the label Noko.

Each pair will cost 1,500 kronor (£131) – more than two years' wages for an average North Korean.

The jeans come in two styles, the slim-fit Kara and loose-fit Oke, and are made in black rather than blue denim.

Blue denim is a "symbol of American imperialism" to the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, Jacob Åström, one of the Swedish importers, said.

The denim diplomacy took place over two years of negotiation, and the Swedes said the deal was sealed over a shot of Swedish vodka.

Åström and his colleagues, all under the age of 25, said the jeans were made in North Korea by the textile offshoot of a mining company.

They have posted a video on their website, nokojeans.com, charting the manufacturing process.

Two officials at the North Korean embassy in Stockholm confirmed that the business was legitimate.

The Swedish entrepreneurs hope to help break North Korea's isolation by joining the handful of foreign manufacturers operating in the communist nation.

The North's regime, built on a philosophy of "self-reliance" and national pride, largely sees foreigners and foreign goods as a threat.

Most countries refuse to trade with Pyongyang because of its poor human rights record, and Åström said he knew of no other European trading partner.

He defended Noko's venture, saying: "We believe that increased contact with the outside world is good for North Koreans.

"I'm not going to defend North Korea as a country – that's not the point.

"But we have made sure that the jeans were made under humane conditions. We were in the factory during the whole manufacturing process."

Jean-Jacques Grauhar, the secretary general of the Seoul-based EU chamber of commerce in Korea, said the new jeans would help boost North Korea's image.

"Already, I'm sure that people have been surprised to find in the same sentence 'designer' and 'North Korea,'" he added.