Stockholm Store Drops North Korean Jeans Line A Stockholm department store has removed a new line of North Korean-made designer jeans from its shelves, saying it wanted to avoid courting controversy with ties with the communist nation. Jonas Ekstromer/Scanpix, via Associated Press The Noko Jeans line was the brainchild of three Swedish entrepreneurs who hoped their label would help break North Korea's isolation. The PUB department store's management had not been informed that the jeans would be carried in its space, and it pulled the plug when it became aware of it, Rene Stephansen, the store's director, said Saturday. "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," he said. "This is not the forum for the discussion" of North Korea. The Noko Jeans line was the brainchild of three Swedish entrepreneurs who hoped their label would help break North Korea's isolation through increased trade with the West. The jeans come only in black, partly because blue ones are associated with the United States and are banned in North Korea. The jeans were to be sold at Aplace, a retail space within the department store. Mr. Stephansen said he had informed the shop's owner of the decision just before the planned launch. A spokesman for Aplace called the decision "a bit cowardly" but said that he understood the department store's point of view. "It's a real shame," Kalle Tollmar said. But we will continue to sell them on our Web site, and Noko Jeans will continue to sell them on theirs. Jeans have been banned in North Korea for years because they are considered a symbol of U.S. imperialism, said Choi Eun-suk, a professor of North Korean legal affairs at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University in Seoul. In 2005, the regime urged women to refrain from wearing trousers, saying Western clothing dampened revolutionary spirit and blurred national pride. The jeans cost 1,500 kronor, or about $220. They are cut and trimmed by workers in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, while material, buttons and zippers are supplied from other countries.