The DPRK puts persons with disabilities on an equal footing with other abled people of society and provides them with genuine rights as the masters of the State and society.

The work of protecting them started since long ago in the DPRK.

The country promulgated the law on labour of white- and blue-collar workers in north Korea in June 24, Juche 35 (1946), which stipulated that those with no ability to work due to labour accident or occupational diseases would be provided with special allowances. In December that year the Provisional People’s Committee of North Korea adopted a decision on the social insurance law for ensuring the living of persons with disabilities. In February 1948, the Central Committee of the Democratic Blind Union of North Korea was organized, and a school for the blind and deaf established in Pyongyang.

During the fierce Fatherland Liberation War in March 1951, the Cabinet adopted a decision on establishing a school with a view to protecting disabled soldiers who got injured in the struggle to defend the country and people and giving them vocational education. In April 1953, disabled soldiers’ cooperatives were organized, and the State took a measure for providing them with jobs and conditions for school attendance in August. Afterwards, schools for the blind and the deaf, sanatoriums for the disabled soldiers and disability care homes were established in all provinces.

From June 1962, the State began to take care of persons with disabilities who have no means of support, and such policies are reflected in the Socialist Constitution of the DPRK (December 1972) and Socialist Labour Law (April 1978).

In June Juche 92 (2003), the Law of the DPRK on Protection of Person with Disabilities was adopted. It systematized the issue of guaranteeing the rights of the persons with disabilities in all sectors of social life in conformity with the developing reality.

The Korean Association for Supporting the Handicapped, founded in July 1998, was developed into the Central Committee of the Korean Federation for Protection of the Disabled in July 2005. As a full-time body in charge of protection of persons with disabilities across the country, it has under its wing the Deaf Association of Korea (DAK), the Korean Rehabilitation Centre for the Children with Disabilities (KRCCD), the Blind Association of Korea (BAK), the Korean Company for Supporting the Disabled, the Korean Sports Association of the Disabled, the Korean Art Association of the Disabled, etc. It engages in such affairs of rehabilitating the persons with disabilities, providing them with social life and cultural and leisure activities and steadily improving their rights.

It sponsors various events on the occasions of the national day of persons with disabilities (June 18) and the international day of persons with disabilities (December 3).

It is making efforts to promote exchange and cooperation with international bodies.