A/HRC/25/CRP.1 320. Reports also suggest that sexual abuse takes place in the process of single women seeking membership to the Workers’ Party of Korea or better positions in the workplace.384 The Commission finds that sexual and gender-based violence against women is prevalent throughout all areas of society. Transactional sex and prostitution are also rife within the DPRK as women voluntarily submit to men for food, money, travel or to avoid a fine or other punishment. These activities, driven by the need for survival by vulnerable persons, are the consequence of the structural problem of food shortage and gender discrimination.385 Such structural problems are also major contributing factors to the high levels of trafficking in women and girls.386 In this regard, the Commission notes the particularly difficult position of younger women, with little opportunity for state employment or advancement in the public sector, and prohibited from engaging in the private market due to the age restriction of only women 40 years and over being allowed to trade. 3. Discrimination against persons with disabilities 321. According to the United Nations, around 10 per cent of the world’s population lives with a disability.387 The World Health Organization notes that the DPRK has estimated that 3.4 per cent of its population have a disability according to 2007 data, or about 790,000 people.388 322. In July 2013, the DPRK signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, although it has yet to ratify it. The Korean Law for Persons with Disabilities was passed in 2003 promising free medical care and special education for persons with disabilities. According to the DPRK’s state report to the Universal Periodic Review in 2009, the law was adopted “with a view to protecting the rights of persons with disabilities satisfactorily. They receive education and medical treatment, choose their occupation according to their talents and abilities, and enjoy cultural life with equal rights with others...while children with other disabilities are included in the mainstream classes. Disabled soldiers’ factories and welfare service centres were set up for the purpose of creating jobs for the persons with disabilities, tonic medicine and walking aid devices are provided free and paid vacation and allowances are provided to them.”389 323. According to witnesses, North Koreans do not openly discuss disability and impairment, and there is widespread prejudice against people with disabilities. • Mr Ji Seong-ho, who lost limbs in a train accident, testified in the Seoul Public Hearing before the Commission: “In North Korea, we call people with disabilities, the crippled, or people with a lot shortcomings or they use a derogative term to refer to the specific part of their body 384 385 386 387 388 389 Lim Soon-hee, “The Food Crisis and the Changing Roles and Attitudes of North Korean Women” (2005), p. 22. See section IV.D. See section IV.C. United Nations Enable, official website of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, “factsheet 2013”. World Health Organization, “Disability in the South-East Asia Region”, 2013. According to Kim Mun-chol, Deputy Chairman of the Chosun Disabled League Central Committee, who led the North Korean sports delegation to the 14th Paralymics in London in 2012, the total number of persons with disabilities in the DPRK is 5.8 per cent of the population. KINU, White Paper on Human Rights in North Korea (2013), p. 440. A/HRC/WG.6/6/PRK/1, para. 74. 91