While
South Korea has been
taking part in the Paralympics since 1968, the North long ignored the Games. In the early 21st century, it was reported that persons with disabilities in North Korea (with the exception of veterans) were locked away in camps, and "subjected to harsh and sub-human conditions". Vitit Muntarbhorn, the United Nations' special rapporteur on human rights, reported in 2006 that North Koreans with disabilities were excluded from the country's showcase capital,
Pyongyang, and kept in camps where they were categorised by disability. Defectors reported the existence of "collective camps for
midgets", whose inmates were forbidden from having children. However the charity
Handicap International reports that it has been operating in North Korea since 1999 assisting the Korean Federation for the Protection of Disabled People(KFPD,조선장애자보호련맹), and the
International Committee of the Red Cross reported in 2006 that it had assisted in setting up a rehabilitation centre for disabled people in
Pyongyang. By 2008, the United Nations reported that the government was "beginning to consider welfare for the disabled".
Yahoo news reported in 2012 that a Paralympic cultural centre exists in
Pyongyang. ==Swimming==