North Korea Makes Jeans ?

This is a surprise to me. I had no idea that North Korea makes a brand of jeans. It's called Noko, and the jeans were scheduled to be introduced in the West in a Swedish department store. But that Swedish store, PUB, has decided not to go through with selling the Korean jeans.

PUB has pulled all the jeans off their shelves. They said they just didn't want to involve themselves in politics. Rene Stephansen, PUB's director, said, "For us this is not a question of Noko jeans - this is a question about a political issue that PUB doesn't want to be associated with."

The three Swedes who imported the jeans were disappointed, saying they had hoped selling the jeans would help to influence North Korea to open its society. The jeans will now be sold on the internet.

I can't believe the store wanted to sell the jeans in the first place -- for two reasons. First, the jeans only come in black. The North Koreans think the color blue for jeans is associated too much with America. But is it even really a jean if it doesn't come in blue?

The second reason not to sell them is their price. They were priced at $220 a pair ( 1,500 kroner). You'd have to be an idiot to pay that much for a pair of jeans (or have so much money you don't know what to do with it). For that kind of money, you could get several pairs of Levis, Wranglers or Lees, and wind up with better jeans to boot.

I'm a person who loves jeans, but I won't have any trouble passing up these overpriced rip-offs.

(The above picture shows the Swedish importers with the jean.)