Disability in North Korea

Reliable information about disability in North Korea, like other information about social conditions in the country, is difficult to find.[1] As of 2016, North Korea is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.[2]

Part of a series on
Human rights in North Korea
Human rights abuses
Political prisons (Kwanliso)
Re-education camps (Kyohwaso)
Abductions and POWs
International reactions

Under Kim Il-sung, disabled veterans enjoyed a high social status. A factory to employ disabled soldiers was established in 1970.[3] Life for the other disabled under Kim Il-sung was "sad, if not horrible", according to North Korea scholar Fyodor Tertitskiy.[4]

Disability rights conventions

As a state party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), North Korea has international obligations to refrain from discriminating against its people based on disability (among others). Under Article 2 of the CRC, "States Parties shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present Convention to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child’s or their parent’s or legal guardian’s race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status" (emphasis added).[5]

North Korea ratified CRPD in December 2016.[6]

In May 2017 the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights of people with disabilities made a first official visit of eight days to North Korea.[7] At a news conference at the end of her visit the rapporteur, Catalina Devandas Aguilar, called for more attention to be given to disabled people in the country.[8]

Alleged infanticide of babies with birth defects

In 2006, the Associated Press reported from South Korea that a North Korean doctor who defected, Ri Kwang-chol, had claimed that babies born with physical defects are rapidly put to death and buried.[9]

Social services

The charity Handicap International reports that it has been operating in North Korea since 1999, assisting the Korean Federation for the Protection of Disabled People, including supporting orthopedic centers serving thousands of disabled people.[10] The International Committee of the Red Cross reported in 2006 that it had assisted in setting up a rehabilitation center for disabled people in Pyongyang,[11] and assisting with rehabilitation program support until 2017.[12] The International Campaign to Ban Landmines reports that North Korea "has a comprehensive system for assisting persons with disabilities; however, this system is limited by the general economic situation of the country."[13]

Still, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Marzuki Darusman, stated the following in his report before the UN Human Rights Council's twenty-second session:

As early as 2003 the Commission on Human Rights expressed deep concern at the "mistreatment of and discrimination of disabled children". Since 2006 the General Assembly has consistently decried "continuing reports of violations of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons with disabilities, especially on the use of collective camps and of coercive measures that target the rights of a person with disabilities to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children.” Whereas in 2006 the Special Rapporteur noted, "to date, the situation facing those with disabilities are sent away from the capital city, and particularly those with the mental disabilities are detained in areas or camps known as 'Ward 49' with harsh and subhuman conditions."[14]

North Korea adopted a law in 2003 to promote equal access for disabled people to public services and claimed in its second report on compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights that its handicapped citizens are protected. North Korea acceded to this covenant on September 14, 1981. However, its law has not been implemented, and North Korean refugees in the South testify that the handicapped are severely discriminated against unless they are wounded soldiers who say their wounds were the result of American aggression in the Korean War.[15]

By 2008, the United Nations reported that the government was "beginning to consider welfare for the disabled".[16]

Separation in "camps"

The disabled, with the exception of veterans, have been relocated to places far away from cities since the rule of Kim Il-sung.[4]

In the early 2000s, it was reported that persons with disabilities in North Korea were locked away in camps, and "subjected to harsh and sub-human conditions".[17] Vitit Muntarbhorn, the United Nations' special rapporteur on human rights, reported in 2006 that North Koreans with disabilities were excluded from the country's showcase capital, Pyongyang, and kept in camps where they were categorised by disability. Defectors reported the existence of "collective camps for midgets", whose inmates were forbidden from having children.[18]

Sport
Further information: North Korea at the Paralympics

North Korea made its Paralympic Games début at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, sending a single wildcard representative (Rim Ju-song, a left arm and left leg amputee) to compete in swimming.[19] Yahoo! News reported in 2012 that a Paralympic cultural centre exists in Pyongyang.[20] The country sent two track and field athletes to the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.[21]

See also

References
  1. Anete Bandone (2012). Policy Briefing - Human Rights in North Korea (PDF) (Report). Policy Department, Directorate-General for External Policies -European Union.
  2. Macdonald, Hamish (25 November 2016). "North Korea to ratify disability convention: state media". NK News. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
  3. "Kim Jong Un Visits Rangnang Disabled Soldiers' Essential Plastic Goods Factory". The Rodong Sinmun. 10 May 2017. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
  4. Tertitskiy, Fyodor (22 August 2016). "North Korea and the Olympic Games". NK News. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
  5. "Convention on the Rights of the Child". Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. November 20, 1989. Retrieved August 18, 2016.
  6. "North Korea opens door a crack to welcome U.N. disability expert". Reuters. April 27, 2017. Retrieved April 26, 2017.
  7. "UN disability rights expert announces first visit to North Korea". Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. 27 April 2017. Retrieved 16 May 2017.
  8. "UN official calls for more work with disabled in North Korea". NYDailyNews.com. Associated Press. 8 May 2017. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
  9. Sheridan, Michael (October 15, 2006). "Nation under a nuclear cloud: 'Racially not impure' children killed". The Times Online. London. Retrieved November 19, 2007.
  10. "North Korea". Handicap International. Archived from the original on July 2, 2012. Retrieved July 29, 2012.
  11. "North Korea: ICRC inaugurates a second physical rehabilitation centre". International Committee of the Red Cross. April 24, 2006. Retrieved June 20, 2014.
  12. THE ICRC IN THE DPRK - 2017 (PDF) (Report). International Committee of the Red Cross. 2018. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  13. "Democratic People's Republic Of Korea – Mine Ban Policy". International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Retrieved January 23, 2013.
  14. A/HRC/22/57, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Marzuki Darusman, 26, para. 72.
  15. David Hawk (2012). Marked for Life: Songbun, North Korea's Social Classification System (PDF). Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. p. 83. ISBN 0985648007. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
  16. "North Korea begins to help disabled", UNHCR, March 5, 2008
  17. "North Korea locks up disabled in 'subhuman' gulags, says UN", The Daily Telegraph, October 21, 2006
  18. "UN slams Korean 'disabled camps'", The Age, 22 October 2006
  19. "Swimmer set to be first North Korean competitor at the Paralympic Games", The Independent, 5 July 2012
  20. "Taedonggong Cultural Center for the Disabled". Yahoo news. 13 June 2012. Retrieved 29 July 2012.
  21. "North Korean Athletes Arrive in Rio for Summer Paralympics | Be Korea-savvy". koreabizwire.com. 5 September 2016. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
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