북한 장애인의 일상생활 현황: 북한이탈주민의 인식을 중심으로

Abstract

This paper intends to show the lives of the disabled in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) during the “Arduous March” period, when the survivals of the DPRK people were threatened with extreme food shortages. I have recorded the data by meeting and listening from fifteen DPRK defectors currently residing in the Republic of Korea (ROK). Many of them lived in N.Hamgyeong Province (Hamgyeongbuk-do) and Northern part of the Yanggang Province (Yanggang-do) near China, and finally defected to ROK between the years 2003-2010. There were two difficulties while proceeding with the research. First, there is no evidence of Pyongyang stating an interest in policy making for the disabled, who either does not have a labor skill or was born weak. Pyongyang’s standpoint of the disabled is fundamentally based on the level of labor skills. In the DPRK’s 1946 Social Insurance Act, which firstly referred to the social treatment towards the disabled, it is stated that the disability annuity is given “when a person becomes physically disabled due to an illness or an injury.” It goes on to specify that the standard for providing the annuity is based on the person’s loss of working ability. This perspective is clearly reflected in the Article 72 of the DPRK’s 2009 Constitution, which states that “people who lost working ability due to an illness or physical disability” would be entitled to material assistance. Like this, Pyongyang’s concerns are not conducting an inspection on current human rights status of the disabled or modifying a system for them to enjoy their natural human rights. The second obstacle was that it was difficult for the defectors to bring back their memories on their own. While living in the DPRK, the daily lives of the disabled were out of their interests. Most of the defectors inwardly emphasized the fact that they did not have any special intercourse with the disabled during their “lifetime.”Nevertheless, it is necessary to initiate organizing incomplete data like this paper. If not initiated,there is a possibility that “voices” of the disabled groups in the DPRK, who cannot secure a communication channel to notify their situations, would disappear without a word.