In what it is calling a first, a team of young Swedish entrepreneurs says it will launch a brand of jeans on Friday made in North Korea.

"The first 1,100 individually numbered jeans" will initially be sold in a Stockholm department store and on the Internet, and then in selected stores elsewhere, Noko Jeans said.

Jakob Ohlsson, Jacob Åström and Tor Rauden Källstigen -- all under the age of 25 -- said their project stemmed from a desire to make contact with the isolated communist state.

North Korea "has been isolated for so long and ethically, we thought that any sort of increased contact with the outside world would be good," Ohlsson told AFP.

"It's a country that sometimes treats its citizens terribly, but we think that our project is a way... to influence things" positively, he added.

The trio first contacted North Korean officials in mid-2007 by email, after finding an official website about outsourcing production to North Korea.

"The first year, we spent time trying to gain access to the country," Ohlsson explained, adding that the trio visited North Korea twice, once to choose a factory and the second time to oversee production.

Production of Noko's two models of jeans began in mid-2009 after a series of obstacles that included "being turned down by the biggest garment company in North Korea."

While made in a communist country that has all but been cut off from foreign influence -- and business -- for the past 60 years, the jeans, not available for purchase in North Korea, will not come cheap.