DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA
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https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/International-Parental-ChildAbduction/for-providers/legal-reports-and-data/reported-cases.html.
Anti-Semitism
There was no known Jewish population, and there were no reports of anti-Semitic
acts.
Trafficking in Persons
See the Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report at
https://www.state.gov/trafficking-in-persons-report/.
Persons with Disabilities
Although the government claims the law meets the international standards of rights
for persons with disabilities, in a 2016 National Human Rights Commission of
Korea survey, 89 percent of defectors said there was no consideration for persons
with disabilities.
While the law mandates equal access to public services for persons with
disabilities, the government did not provide consistent support for them.
Traditional social norms condone discrimination against persons with disabilities,
including in the workplace (also see section 7.d.). NGO reports, including KINU’s
2019 white paper, stated that while the government on balance treated veterans
with disabilities well, escapees often described support for veterans with
disabilities as inconsistent and only at a perfunctory level. The government
reportedly provided no support to other persons with physical and mental
disabilities. In some cases authorities sent persons with disabilities from
Pyongyang to internal exile, quarantined them within camps, and forcibly sterilized
them. Persons with disabilities experienced discrimination in accessing public life.
The UN special rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities visited the
country for the first time in 2017 and noted most infrastructure, including newly
constructed buildings, was not accessible to persons with physical disabilities.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child repeatedly expressed concern, most
recently in 2017, regarding de facto discrimination against children with
disabilities and insufficient measures taken by the state to ensure these children
had effective access to health, education, and social services. KINU’s 2019 white
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2020
United States Department of State • Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor