Posts Tagged ‘NOKO Jeans’

There has been a denim  debate in Sweden recently as well as internationally. The debate is regarding new Swedish designers who produces their jeans in a north Korean factory. According to NoKo jeans website their interest and curiosity  in North Korea, a nation closed off from the rest of the world for 60 years made them want to invest and make business with the people of North Korea. This business cooperation is called Denim Diplomacy in The Guardian.

The jeans were produced after  2 years of “diplomacy” negotiations between NoKo jeans and North Korea. But only days before the jeans were premiering at department store PUB in central Stockholm, the store management refused the opening of NoKo jeans museum due to the dichtator origin of the denims. Hence the jeans became a hype, apparently people feel bad for these poor designer who cant sell their jeans at PUB, and maybe feel that NoKo are brave young people who managed to settle relations with one of the closed countries in the world. And apparently the NoKo jeans people think that it is beneficiary for North Korea that they, a small Swedish company are doing business over there.

I disagree I see this “Denim diplomacy” as highly problematic. And as far as politics go, I think that trade loyalty is important. I would never ever buy a product that I know was produced in North Korea. That is my consumer power. I believe that the people of North Korea are deprived of many basic human rights, as the right to vote, and freedom of speech.

According to the Swedish Goverment’s Human Rights report Quote: “The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has a collectivist social order in which respect for Human Rights (HR) are exposed to serious, comprehensive and systematic violations. North Korea has one of the world’s most repressive political regimes.”

Denim Diplomacy, maybe if there was a friendship between NoKo and North Korea, yeah. but I think you should think again before producing product in a country which violates human rights. I will not support it.