Disability in North Korea
One of the subjects that interests us here at Ouch is the lives of disabled people in countries that, for various reasons, not so much is known about. Last year on Ouch, we brought you Stephen Hallett's One eye on China series of articles, and more recently on the weblog we posted an entry containing some shocking discoveries about disabled people in war-torn Afghanistan. But what about possibly the most secretive and cut-off nation of them all - ?
In an article published yesterday on the website, it's revealed that "rejected and marginalized by a regime that has only recently begun to acknowledge their existence, disabled North Koreans live under effective house arrest and are routinely expelled from the capital, Pyongyang", according to defectors and aid groups. In North Korean society, it is apparently acceptable to routinely use derogatory language about disabled people, and there is almost a total lack of social services facilities available to them.
to read this genuinely fascinating article.
Comments
I have a friend who is a nurse in the US army and has worked in the Middle East. There they treat disabled people as if they have no rights at all. They shut them away in rooms and leave them to their own devices. These people interbreed and create babies with deformities that are not even seen in medical textbooks. It's a different world.
I have been to North Korea and visited Pyongyang the capital. There are no disabled people in the city what so ever as Kim Jong Il wishes for only healthy people (and taller people) to be seen by any visiters. It is really sad but his obsession with showing North Korea off to be a healthy country (economically and otherwise) is at the expense of so many people.