The secretive communist country sent a number of disability athletes to Beijing for training last week, according to the Tokyo-based Chosun Sinbo newspaper, which has close links to the Government in Pyongyang.

North Korea won provisional membership of the International Paralympic Committee in March, the Korea Sports Association (KSA), in South Korea said, and hopes to compete in athletics, swimming and table tennis in London.

"This is the first time North Korea has won the right to participate," a KSA official told South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

A country's previous participation in international competition helps its case in qualifying for the Paralympics, according to Chosun Sinbo.

The Korean athletes are due to stay in China until early next month and it is planned that they will compete in a number of competitions. 

"[North Korean] athletes will gain that qualification through this trip to China," it said.

Sending a team to compete in the Paralympics would represent a major breakthrough for the disabled in North Korea.

Until recently the country ran a rigorous system of eugenics that locks up those deemed subnormal, including those with disabilities.

A system of gulags was designed to ensure that those who do not conform to the state's designation of normal did not pass on their genes by having children.

"Those with disabilities are sent away from the capital city...are detained in areas or camps known as 'Ward 49' with harsh and subhuman conditions," wrote Thai lawyer Vitit Muntarbhorn in a report for the United Nations published in 2006. 

The report also detailed extensive reports of other forms of torture on the disabled, including chemical weapons tests and germ agent experiments.

Those not used as laboratory guinea pigs were ordered to carry out back breaking work, according to the UN report.

But a change in attitude began in 2008, claimed reports, with rehabilitation centers for the disabled being built and limited welfare being available. 

Interestingly, the improvement in conditions coincided with North Korea's closest ally, China, hosting the Paralympic Games in Beijing, an event widely credited with having changed attitudes towards the disabled there. 

South Korea made its Paralympic debut in 1968 and has since won a total of 275 medals, including 109 gold, making it the 20th most successful country in the history of the Games.

North Korea frequently competes in both Summer and Winter Olympic Games.

The country has so far competed in eight Summer Games, winning a total of 41 medals, including 10 gold, two of which came in Beijing four years ago thanks to gymnast Hong Un Jong, who won the vault, and Pak Hyon Suk, winner of the women's 63kg weightlifting. 

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