December 3rd was International Day of Persons with
Disabilities. To this reporter who defected from the North, this day comes
across as a concept quite foreign, having only celebrated the birthdays of Kim
Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. It also may be because the understanding of the
disabled is very different between the South and North.
In time for this day, the North’s Chosun Central TV [KCTV]
featured officials from the Chosun Federation for the Protection of the
Disabled, explaining the types of welfare policies in place for the disabled
and claiming, “Thanks to the virtuous governance of Marshal Kim Jong Eun,
projects to protect the disabled are well underway.”
Contrary to such claims, although laws for disabled persons
do exist in North Korea’s constitution, they carry no weight in society. In the
North, disabled people are referred to as “deformed” or “cripples.” Based on
that, it’s easy enough to guess what kind of treatment they receive in society.
In Pyongyang and other cities visited by foreign tourists,
regardless of whether conditions are congenital or people are subjected to them
later in life, disabled people are branded “cripples” and expelled from the
city along with their families. If employees sustain work injuries and become
disabled, there is no compensation from the state or any other form of support.
While serving in the military, if soldiers lose their limbs in training
accidents, they are simply discharged. There is a policy for honorable
discharge, but it is nominal and of no benefit.
On International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the Daily
NK conducted a phone interview with a former company commander in North Korea,
Hwang Ji Ae, who arrived in the South in 2012. She sustained a third-degree
disability [lower level loss of work capacity] while serving in the military,
and we talked to her to learn more about the perceptions and treatment of
disabled people in North Korea.
The Daily NK [DNK]: How are disabled people treated in North
Korea?
Hwang Ji Ae [HWANG]: In the North, people call them
‘deformed’ or ‘cripples.’ It’s hard enough for a healthy person to get by in
the North, so you can only imagine what it would be like for a disabled person.
They’re treated like they’re not humans. There are so many people who have lost
arms or legs while at work. The state doesn’t give them any compensation or
provide them with prosthetics. People have to place orders at the Hamheung
prosthetics factory with their own money. In short, there are no human rights
for the disabled. In this entire world, the place with absolutely no concept of
‘welfare for the disabled’ is North Korea.
DNK: You used to be in the military. How did you get
injured?
HWANG: I was serving as a company commander in Gangwon
Province, but in 1993 I lost my right hand in an accident while I was training.
I have a certificate saying I was honorably discharged, but I couldn’t even
receive rations from the Public Distribution System. I went to the Party office
in the city and signed up for a management position at a light-labor work area
[work stations for the disabled], but I was turned down after being told
‘cripples’ cannot work for Party cadre. Having become a ‘cripple’ in my 20s, I
thought love and marriage were all just luxuries in life. The world around me just
felt like hell. Once you become disabled in the North, even if you shed blood
for your nation, you just have to live with the dirty fate that has been handed
down to you. Out of rage, five honorably discharged men who are also disabled
have been assaulting people at markets or on trains using their canes, but law
enforcement can’t seem to do anything about it.
DNK: What do you think about welfare for the disabled in the
South?
HWANG: It’s a world of difference from the North. Of all
things, I was moved by the benefits the disabled and people who need basic
security for their livelihoods receive. If you’re a human being, they carry out
measures so that you can live like a human being. When I learned disabled
people can receive benefits just like war veterans, I was so touched I cried
alone at home. The South feels like paradise for the disabled.
DNK: How is your life in the South?
HWANG: I wasn’t able to receive a recommendation for
university in the North because I’m disabled, and I also couldn’t join a
program for Party cadre training, so I had given up on life, but I decided to
start over. I got into a college called Korea Polytechnics, which is in Gangwon
Province. They have all the facilities for visually impaired, wheelchair
access– everything students with disabilities would need. They actually
receive more benefits than regular students. It reminds me of my friends back
home who are still being treated horribly and suffering.
When I was taking my graduation examination, I received an
extra 30 minutes to an hour on my test, because I only have one hand. I studied
hard and got an A-grade license and also got a job. On subways, trains, buses,
wherever I go it’s free and there are special restrooms and parking spaces for
the disabled. I think in South Korea the disabled aren’t ‘cripples,’ they’re
treated like ‘ministers.’
DNK: North Korea took part in the Incheon Asian Para Games.
HWANG: It’s all a show for North Korea to take part in the
Games when there’s no basic concept at all about human rights. I think traders
and North Koreans have probably heard through defectors about the whole issue
of the North’s prison camps and human rights becoming a big issue though. Kim
Jong Eun’s ‘love politics,’ pretending to uphold the rights of the disabled
more so than Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, is all a ploy to deceive people and
the rest of the world. Fit people in the North don’t even have human rights.
There’s no need to even mention whether human rights exist for the disabled.
DNK: What kind of plans do you have for the future?
HWANG: I’m studying social welfare through a cyber
university program at the moment. The more I study, the more I come to respect
the policies they have in the South. I think as a disabled North Korean
defector, I should give back what I have received. Once the two countries
unify, I’d like to implement South Korea’s policies for the disabled in the
North, so that all the disabled people in North Korea can smile on
International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
