[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 109 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 109

Urging passage of a resolution addressing human rights abuses in North 
  Korea at the 59th session of the United Nations Commission on Human 
  Rights, and calling on the Government of North Korea to respect and 
               protect the human rights of its citizens.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 27, 2003

Mr. Smith of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. Wolf, Mr. Pitts, Mr. Lincoln 
Diaz-Balart of Florida, Mr. Chabot, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, Mr. Rohrabacher, 
 Mr. Bereuter, Mr. Hoeffel, Mr. Wexler, Mr. Markey, Ms. Bordallo, Mr. 
  Leach, Mr. Faleomavaega, Mr. Gallegly, and Mr. Wamp) submitted the 
     following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
                        International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Urging passage of a resolution addressing human rights abuses in North 
  Korea at the 59th session of the United Nations Commission on Human 
  Rights, and calling on the Government of North Korea to respect and 
               protect the human rights of its citizens.

Whereas the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (in this preamble referred to 
        as ``North Korea'') is, in the words of the United States Department of 
        State, ``a dictatorship under the absolute rule of the Korean Workers' 
        Party'' that ``prohibits freedom of speech, the press, assembly, and 
        association . . . [and] restricts freedom of religion, citizens' 
        movements, and worker rights'';
Whereas according to the State Department, ``[t]he [North Korean] Penal Code is 
        Draconian, stipulating capital punishment and confiscation of assets for 
        a wide variety of `crimes against the revolution,' including defection, 
        attempted defection, slander of the policies of the party or State, 
        listening to foreign broadcasts, writing `reactionary' letters, and 
        possessing reactionary printed matter'';
Whereas, as noted in the State Department Country Reports on Human Rights 
        Practices, the North Korean regime executes political prisoners, 
        opponents of the regime, some repatriated defectors, some members of 
        underground churches, and others, sometimes at public meetings attended 
        by workers, students, and school children;
Whereas the North Korean regime subjects all its citizens to systematic, 
        intensive political and ideological indoctrination in support of the 
        cult of personality glorifying Kim Jong Il and the late Kim Il Sung 
        which, in the words of the State Department, ``approaches the level of a 
        state religion'';
Whereas the North Korean regime divides its population into categories, based on 
        perceived loyalty to the Party and the leadership, which determine 
        access to employment, higher education, place of residence, medical 
        facilities, and other resources;
Whereas the North Korean regime attempts to control all information, artistic 
        expression, and academic works inside North Korea and strictly curtails 
        freedom of speech;
Whereas the Government of North Korea holds an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 
        political prisoners in camps that its State Security Agency manages 
        through the use of forced labor, beatings, torture, and executions, and 
        in which many prisoners also die from disease, starvation, and exposure;
Whereas according to eyewitness testimony provided to the Committee on 
        International Relations of the House of Representatives by camp 
        survivors, camp inmates have been used as sources of slave labor for the 
        production of export goods, as targets for martial arts practice, and as 
        experimental victims in the testing of chemical and biological poisons;
Whereas according to eyewitness testimony provided to the Committee on 
        International Relations by a camp survivor, female camp prisoners are 
        not permitted to have children and their newborn babies are routinely 
        and brutally killed by camp authorities;
Whereas according to the State Department ``[g]enuine religious freedom does not 
        exist'' in North Korea and, in the words of the United States Commission 
        on International Religious Freedom, ``[t]he North Korean state severely 
        represses public and private religious activities'';
Whereas the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has 
        highlighted ``reports that [North Korean] officials have arrested, 
        imprisoned, tortured, and sometimes executed North Korean citizens who 
        were found to have ties with overseas Christian evangelical groups 
        operating across the border in China, as well as those who engaged in 
        such unauthorized religious activities as public religious expression 
        and persuasion'';
Whereas according to eyewitness testimony provided to the Committee on 
        International Relations in May 2002, a North Korean prison camp survivor 
        witnessed a group of Christian prisoners being tortured to death in 1990 
        for refusing to repudiate their faith;
Whereas more than 1,000,000 North Koreans are estimated to have died of 
        starvation since 1995 because of the failure of the centralized 
        agricultural system operated by the Government of North Korea;
Whereas the risk of starvation and the threat of persecution in North Korea have 
        caused many thousands of North Koreans to flee their homeland, primarily 
        into the People's Republic of China;
Whereas the Governments of the People's Republic of China and North Korea have 
        been conducting aggressive campaigns to locate North Koreans who are in 
        the People's Republic of China without permission and to forcibly return 
        them to North Korea;
Whereas North Koreans who seek asylum while in the People's Republic of China 
        are routinely imprisoned and tortured, and in some cases killed, after 
        they are returned to North Korea; and
Whereas the 59th session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights is 
        scheduled to be held in Geneva, Switzerland from March 17 to April 25, 
        2003: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) urges the Secretary of State to draft, introduce, and 
        work toward the passage of a resolution addressing human rights 
        abuses in North Korea at the 59th session of the United Nations 
        Commission on Human Rights; and
            (2) calls on the Government of the Democratic People's 
        Republic of Korea to respect and protect the human rights of 
        its citizens, such as those recognized in the Universal 
        Declaration of Human Rights.
                                 <all>