Noko Jeans
Vice: Hello Noko Jeans guys. Why would you produce jeans in North Korea?
Jacob Åström: Jeans happened to be our way into the most secluded place on Earth. Everything in the world is accessible through Google and Wikipedia except for, well, North Korea. It turned into an obsession.
North Korea doesn’t even have a website.
Tor Rauden Källstigen: The closest you get is a fan site, Korea-dpr.com, run by the Korean Friendship Association. Hungover on Tor’s couch on a Sunday morning, in the summer of 2007, we discovered the KFA had a business section. You could produce stuff like motorbikes, tanks, cosmetics and jeans. We were like, “Jeans? Of course!”
So you decided to get in touch with a bunch of freaks who admire North Korean politics?
Tor: We eventually realised that all they offered was a super expensive business trip.
Jakob O: It was a big disappointment. But we didn’t give up. Without knowing how you go about it, we contacted some companies in China, asking for further contacts to factories in Pyongyang.
You had no clue about what you were doing?
Jacob Å: We didn’t know shit. We started randomly calling up trade experts.
Tor: The breakthrough was when we got a meeting with Mr. Chang at the North Korean Embassy in Stockholm. We were nervous as their usual business with Europe consists of exporting a thousand tons of zinc to Italy and we wanted to produce very few amount of jeans.
Did you have to bribe him with strippers and Absolut Vodka?
Tor: The challenge wasn’t to convince them to do business with us. With the US trade embargo, they’re happy for any business they can get. The challenge was to constantly explain that we were not interested in buying a zinc factory the size of a football field.
Um, how did it go from jeans to zinc factories?
Jakob O: We didn’t know jeans were forbidden in North Korea or that it’s impolite to say no there, so they kept trying to get us into producing other things. The meetings would start with us suggesting we do a thousand pairs of jeans and they’d answer, “Not enough,” and try to convince us to make 150,000 jackets instead. When that didn’t work, they tried to get us to buy zinc and we had to start all over.
Jakob Å: They also wanted help importing make-up and a couple of Volvo buses.
Tor: We met with Mr. Chang once every other week, so in the end we became friends and he finally arranged for us to travel to North Korea on a business trip tailored especially for us. We even got to set the schedule!
Look at you, a VIP trip to North Korea! What was it like?
Tor: We went there by train, a 25-hour journey from Beijing. Besides a Chinese dude, we were the only foreigners.
Did you talk to any North Koreans?
Jacob Å: They didn’t speak English so we had to find other ways of communicating. Slapstick humour was very popular, like making one of the little snuffboxes that we’d brought with us “talk”. We’d make the box say “Hello” using the lid as the mouth. They loved it! We used that during our entire stay, and we’d let the box talk to bigger and bigger things. The highlight was when we said hello to the table at a business dinner. People laughed so hard they cried!
Did that work on the obligatory guide and translator assigned to keep an eye on you?
Jacob Å: She made us laugh. Imagine a North Korean girl, our age, with the strongest Texan accent, like, “Haye gaaays, where ye’ going?” Hilarious!
Curiosity killed the cat.
Jacob Å: We stayed in a humongous 1,500-room hotel. The only other people staying there were a Russian tap-dance team, an old Swede who was an elevator engineer, and a bunch of Egyptian concrete experts who had just invested €3,000,000 in North Korea.
Did they serve you giant bunnies?
Jacob Å: Um, no. We did however eat some yummy double burgers, their version of a Big Mac, at this restaurant we found on one of our walks. They let us walk around on our own! It took some nagging though.
Tor: Walking at night was the best. As they have no streetlights it was pitch black. You could see every star in the sky and the bluish lights from the windows in the massive housing compounds were like an LED display, with people moving or lighting a cigarette.
Jacob Å: There’s a car with loud speakers driving around waking people up at 6 AM. We called it “The SHOUT! Car”.
But how exactly did you get North Korea to say yes to jeans?
Tor: We had tons of meetings! You’d start by meeting a manager. If it went well you’d meet the middle manager, then the general manager and so on. For every new person you had to do the presentation all over again, gain their trust and sell the idea of making jeans, or “fashion pants” as we called them.
Sounds like a video game.
Tor: Exactly, you’d finish one level, fight the boss, and then on to the next until you meet the big boss. Fail once and you lose!
Did you fight the final boss?
Jakob O: We got a sign off, yes. We were lucky because he was young and nice.
Tor: Clothing is one of their main industries because China subcontracts production there to get cheaper labour. But it’s all hushed up and the clothes are still labelled “Made in China”. Then we come along, not only promising to be open about where the jeans are made, but to build our whole concept around it.
Wait a minute! You’re basically doing North Korean propaganda. How can you live with yourselves?
Jakob O: We believe we’re making some kind of small difference by going there and talking to them. For example, we told them all European companies require CSR, Corporate Social Responsibility, and that if they want to start trading with Europe they have to adjust. Which isn’t entirely true, but it feels good to have spread the notion of ethical conditions, like decent work hours and no child labour. We’re convinced that we’re doing something good.
And you think they’ll follow your standards?
Tor: We’ve seen the factory and it’s a holiday camp compared to the factories we saw in China. It’s brand new with some hundred workers, all in colourful uniforms, and the ambience is calm and quiet. They even had karaoke machines on all floors, the vintage kind with laser discs. And there’s a badminton court on the top floor, so we’ll bring rackets next time.
Sounds like they put on a nice show on for you.
WORDS: MILÈNE LARSSON
PHOTOS: TOR RAUDEN KÄLLSTIGEN
Stein
April 01, 2010 10:58pm
Oh so ggooddd
Daniel
April 06, 2010 11:08am
I would love to go to North Korea but its just too dificult. The architecture is amazing and such resiliant people under imense pressures and strains.Lets hope we see these Jeans in Australia.
mvb
April 07, 2010 04:49pm
I find it very hard to believe that labor standards are being met. This seems like a group of voyeuristic kids who think the Potemkin Village is real.
Jo Watts
April 08, 2010 08:04pm
Oh wow, never really thought about it that way before. Makes sense. Lou http://www.anon-resources.at.tc
atul
April 08, 2010 08:09pm
Brue jeans from.. er.. North Korea-errrr fixed
Frank
April 08, 2010 08:20pm
It's a shame the citizens in that country don't get to enjoy the nice hotel and the double burgers you guys got to enjoy...
Junk
April 08, 2010 09:33pm
Clueless...
J
April 08, 2010 09:49pm
" Clothing is one of their main industries because China subcontracts production there to get cheaper labour. But it’s all hushed up and the clothes are still labelled 'Made in China'." Interesting...
Tim
April 09, 2010 12:08am
You gotta be nuts! North Korea is a prison state with the general population starving while Kim Jong Ill parties. I think you need a good spanking. I hope your government is listening. Simply awful behavior.
Daniel
April 09, 2010 12:47am
I think this is great. Too bad only a handful of foreigners are allowed into DPRK. The DPRK is a prison state, but if you are invited there you are a guest and they usually treat you well, as expected from Korean culture, but it means you must adhere to strict rules. I wish I could go there for the cultural experience. By the way, I doubt Kim Jong Il parties everyday because of the fact that he hides most of the time so he isn't assassinated plus his health would determine so.
Round Cat
April 09, 2010 12:48am
Sounds very interesting. I've been curious myself of what a trip to North Korea would be like, but I bet unless your an invited guest such as Jacob, Jakob, and Tor were, the country has an entirely different facade.
Daniel
April 09, 2010 12:10pm
I think this is great. Too bad only a handful of foreigners are allowed into DPRK. The DPRK is a prison state, but if you are invited there you are a guest and they usually treat you well, as expected from Korean culture, but it means you must adhere to strict rules. I wish I could go there for the cultural experience. By the way, I doubt Kim Jong Il parties everyday because of the fact that he hides most of the time so he isn't assassinated plus his health would determine so.
Shelby
April 09, 2010 02:50pm
i think that despite the politics, the best way to educate or intrigue people is to go somewhere, share some experiences, see that all humans are the same, just unfortunate that they aren't all treated the same, but ultimately - raise awareness. My experience in Japan dispelled so many 'myths' and 'prejudices' I had both for me and my Japanese friends. Change one person at a time is pretty powerful stuff.
Euro Trash Kid
April 09, 2010 08:05pm
£140 for a pair of jeans, get a real job you idiots
rei-gouki
April 10, 2010 04:42am
Prison state or not, the disparity between the amount of business being done in China vs NK given your concepts of their collective work conditions being similar raises the question of the social intelligence of anyone of you who own a piece of Made in China and still hold that view. Look up the difference in living conditions between pre and post the first US-led invasion of Iraq in the 90s and ask yourself how much of those hardships are due to the governance and how much due to the rest of the world. And remember, the US did not give a crap until Iraq invaded Kuwait, where the US had oil interests.
Jessie
April 10, 2010 01:40pm
You guys are so lucky to see the people living a country which is only known from the media (just as my country used to be).Why can't we do something without bias? It's just for fun, for business, not for politics.
Stevie
April 13, 2010 05:43pm
This is a brill interview. Gotta get me some!!
jogging-stroller
April 29, 2010 12:43pm
Seeing how well Wallmart or Chinamart as I like to call them, is doing, I would say they'll be doing great. This is basically Capitalism 101. You produce your goods in the cheapest possible location in order to sell them for as much as possible to the consumers leaving the largest possible profit for the company.. Americans should love this.
IKOBE
May 01, 2010 09:05am
Hey.when NK ppl are starving and dying,thier goverment spent 6 billion dollars for KIM JUNG IL'S birthday party. they will appreciate for all the money which you will get them.cuz they will make a nice weapon for this world... you just donated for them .
redstar
May 01, 2010 09:18am
North Korea.....They (even who is in uniform) would step on your stomach eventhough ur pregnant and take ur life away . here ppl has NO IDEA about NK. I feel very sorry about this business.
Yap
May 08, 2010 10:36pm
A fantastic and impressive display of promoting yourselves! You want to be loved, in lack thereof admired, in lack thereof feared, in lack there of hated and despised. Check, check, and check.
tony
July 06, 2010 04:58pm
Anonymous
March 03, 2012 01:05am
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Anonymous
March 17, 2012 08:19am
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