NoKo Jeans - the launch of North Korean Jeans in Sweden is stopped by PUB

The Swedish Launch of Noko Jeans was stopped before it even began. As Reuters reported the jeans were meant to go on sale this Friday at PUB in Stockholm, but they proved to be a political hot potato and PUB declined opening the Noko shop. See, the Noko designer jeans that costs a hefty 1,500 Swedish crowns ($215) are made in North Korea and as Swedish newspapers DN, SvD and Aftonbladet report that PUB - the department store where the jeans were meant to be sold - pulled the plug on Friday with the explanation: "This is a political issue that PUB wants no part of."

The North Korean Jeans idea was hatched by three young admen in Stockholm (Reuters calls the 25-year old lads "Swedish advertising executives" what their real titles are is anybody's guess). They are Jakob Ohlsson, Tor Rauden Källstigen and Jacob Åström, and they have "never worked with fashion before" according to the papers. They had found the unusual North Korean export by chance when they were surfing the web back in 2007. "On that homepage there was images of the products that North Korea says they export. It was everything from makeup, to animated films, to weapons and ships - but we also saw an image of jeans." said Jacob Åström to DN.
 "That we sell these jeans doesn't mean that I'm defending North Korea as a country, but our project is a positive step in breaking NK's isolation, and instead of selling these jeans at PUB we'll now look for a sympathetic gallery instead."

Aren't jeans banned in North Korea?