[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 168 Engrossed in House (EH)]


  1st Session

                            H. CON. RES. 168

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                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Condemning the Democratic People's Republic of Korea for the abductions 
and continued captivity of citizens of the Republic of Korea and Japan 
       as acts of terrorism and gross violations of human rights.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 168

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                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Whereas since the end of the Korean War, the Government of the Democratic 
        People's Republic of Korea has kidnapped thousands of South Korean 
        citizens and as many as a hundred Japanese citizens, including Rumiko 
        Masumoto, Megumi Yokota, and Reverend Kim Dong-shik;
Whereas the forced detention and frequent murder of those individuals abducted 
        by North Korea have caused untold grief and suffering to their families;
Whereas on September 17, 2002, after considerable pressure from the Government 
        of Japan, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il admitted that agents of his 
        government had abducted thirteen Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 
        1980s and assured Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi that this 
        would never happen again;
Whereas despite assurances to the contrary, North Korea continues to order and 
        carry out abductions, and, as recently as August 8, 2004, North Korean 
        agents operating along the Chinese border kidnapped Ms. Jin Kyung-sook, 
        a former North Korean refugee and South Korean passport-holder;
Whereas the abduction policy of North Korea has been integral to its espionage 
        and terrorist activities, and abductees have been kidnapped to work as 
        spies, to train North Korean agents in language, accents, and culture, 
        and to steal identities, as in the case of Mr. Tadaaki Hara;
Whereas the Pyongyang regime used abductee Ms. Yaeko Taguchi as the Japanese 
        language instructor for North Korean terrorist Kim Hyon-hee, who was 
        caught carrying a Japanese passport after planting a bomb on Korean Air 
        Lines flight 858 that killed 115 people in 1987;
Whereas many victims of North Korean abduction have been seized during terrorist 
        attacks, as in the hijacking of South Korean planes in 1958 and 1969, 
        and, decades later, Pyongyang continues to hold twelve passengers of a 
        hijacked Korean Air flight, including passenger Mr. Chang Ji-young and 
        flight attendant Ms. Song Kyong-hi, who has since been allowed a brief 
        visit by her South Korean family;
Whereas North Korean agents have hijacked numerous South Korean ships and 
        kidnapped the seamen and fishermen aboard the vessels, such as Choi 
        Jong-suk, Kim Soon-keun, and ten other crewmen of the Dongjin 27, a ship 
        that was seized in 1987, and Seoul estimates that hundreds of these 
        abductees are still alive in North Korea;
Whereas boat hijackings and the kidnapping of fishermen have devastated South 
        Korean fishing communities, such as Nongso village on the southern 
        island of Geoje, a community of 210 people that lost 14 sons, husbands, 
        and fathers when North Korea seized three ships in 1971 and 1972;
Whereas the North Korean authorities conspired with members of the Japanese Red 
        Army, a group designated as a terrorist organization by the United 
        States Department of State, to kidnap Keiko Arimoto, a young Japanese 
        woman studying abroad;
Whereas the Unification Ministry of the Republic of Korea has confirmed that 486 
        abduction cases involving South Korean citizens remain unresolved, and 
        that these cases include fishermen, seamen, airline passengers, 
        teachers, students, and pastors, many of whom are still alive and being 
        held in North Korea;
Whereas North Korean agents have abducted children, causing unimaginable anguish 
        to parents who live decades with the uncertainty of what has happened to 
        their child, as in the cases of Takeshi Terakoshi, a thirteen-year-old 
        boy kidnapped from a fishing boat with his two uncles, and Lee Min-gyo 
        and Choi Seung-min, two seventeen-year-old friends abducted off a beach 
        in South Korea;
Whereas North Korean agents kidnapped thirteen-year-old Megumi Yokota, as she 
        was walking home from school, and subsequently reported that she married 
        and had a daughter in North Korea before committing suicide in 1993, and 
        that Megumi's daughter remains there separated from her family in Japan;
Whereas on April 5, 1971, North Korean agents abducted Yu Song-gun, a South 
        Korean diplomat stationed at the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in 
        West Germany, his wife, and two young daughters, ages 7 and 1, while the 
        family was believed to be in Berlin;
Whereas the Pyongyang regime has abducted a number of South Korean ministers who 
        were bravely working to rescue North Koreans escaping on the underground 
        railroad through China, including Reverend Ahn Seung-woon and Reverend 
        Kim Dong-shik, the latter of whose welfare is of particular importance 
        to representatives of the State of Illinois;
Whereas on April 21, 2005, the Seoul Central District Court convicted Chinese 
        citizen Ryu Young-hwa of assisting North Korean agents in the abduction 
        of Reverend Kim and, further, that a Chinese court convicted a North 
        Korean citizen of masterminding the abduction of Reverend Ahn, and 
        deported the agent to North Korea in July 1997 following a two-year 
        prison term;
Whereas some of the abductees have risked their lives in trying to escape North 
        Korea, as in the case of South Korean fisherman Im Kuk-jae, who has 
        twice attempted to escape since his kidnapping in 1987, and is now 
        believed to be imprisoned in one of North Korea's notorious labor camps;
Whereas the North Korean regime continues to deceive the international community 
        regarding its ongoing abductions and has furnished false information 
        concerning eight Japanese abductees, including suspicious accounts of 
        their supposed premature deaths;
Whereas the Government of North Korea has never convincingly accounted for Ms. 
        Rumiko Masumoto and Mr. Shuichi Ichikawa, kidnapped by Pyongyang agents 
        from a beach in Japan on August 12, 1978, and claims that Mr. Ichikawa 
        drowned in the sea, despite his dislike of swimming, and that the 
        formerly healthy Ms. Masumoto died of a heart attack at the age of 27;
Whereas North Korea claims abductees Mr. Toru Ishioka and Ms. Keiko Arimoto, who 
        were kidnapped separately in Europe and later married, supposedly died 
        together with their small daughter of gas poisoning in 1988, two months 
        after they were successful in getting a letter out of North Korea to 
        family members in Japan;
Whereas although the Pyongyang regime claimed to return the alleged cremated 
        remains of Mr. Kaoru Matsuki and Ms. Megumi Yokota to Japanese 
        officials, both remains appear not to be authentic, and, according to 
        Pyongyang, the bodies of the six remaining Japanese abductees have 
        conveniently been washed away during flooding and cannot be recovered to 
        verify the causes of their untimely deaths;
Whereas despite the efforts of the Japanese Government, the Pyongyang regime 
        continues to deny any knowledge of the abductions of Mr. Yutaka Kume, 
        Mr. Minoru Tanaka, and Ms. Miyoshi Soga, the mother of another 
        acknowledged abductee, despite overwhelming evidence of North Korean 
        collusion in their disappearances;
Whereas North Korean abductions have not been limited to northeast Asia and many 
        documented abductees have been kidnapped while abroad, such as Mr. Lee 
        Chae-hwan, a young MIT graduate student traveling in Austria, and Mr. Ko 
        Sang-moon, a South Korean teacher kidnapped in Norway, making the issue 
        of serious concern to the international community;
Whereas there have been credible reports that North Korea may have abducted 
        citizens from many other countries in addition to South Korea and Japan, 
        including persons from China, Europe, and the Middle East;
Whereas North Korea routinely engaged in the kidnapping of South Korean citizens 
        during the Korean War from 1950 to 1953, and, according to a 1956 survey 
        conducted by the Korean National Red Cross, 7,034 South Korean civilians 
        were abducted during the conflict;
Whereas Pyongyang has refused to allow the release of a single wartime abductee 
        despite a provision allowing civilian abductees to return home in 
        Article III of the Korean War Armistice Agreement, a document signed by 
        representatives from the United States, North Korea, and China;
Whereas for more than fifty years, North Korea has held South Korean prisoners-
        of-war captured during the Korean War, in clear violation of Article III 
        of the Korean War Armistice Agreement signed on July 27, 1953, and the 
        South Korean Ministry of National Defense estimates that 542 captives 
        are still alive in North Korea, according to testimony given before the 
        National Assembly in February 2005;
Whereas according to the testimony of prisoners-of-war who have successfully 
        escaped from North Korea, South Korean prisoners-of-war have been forced 
        to perform hard labor for decades, often in mines, and are harshly 
        treated by the Pyongyang regime;
Whereas after being forcibly held in North Korea for fifty-one years, South 
        Korean prisoner-of-war Han Man-taek, age 72, escaped to China, was 
        detained by Chinese police and forcibly repatriated to North Korea 
        earlier this year, where he inevitably faced punitive measures and 
        possible execution; and
Whereas these South Korean prisoners-of-war served under the United Nations 
        Command, fighting alongside their American and Allied fellow soldiers, 
        and therefore are the direct concern of the Allied nations who 
        contributed forces during the Korean War: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring),  
That Congress--
            (1) condemns the Government of the Democratic People's 
        Republic of Korea for the abduction and continued captivity of 
        citizens of the Republic of Korea and Japan as acts of 
        terrorism and gross violations of human rights;
            (2) calls upon the North Korean Government to immediately 
        cease and desist from carrying out abductions, release all 
        victims of kidnapping and prisoners-of-war still alive in North 
        Korea, and provide a full and verifiable accounting of all 
        other cases;
            (3) recognizes that resolution of the nuclear issue with 
        North Korea is of critical importance, however, this should not 
        preclude United States Government officials from raising 
        abduction cases and other critical human rights concerns in any 
        future negotiations with the North Korean regime;
            (4) calls upon the United States Government not to remove 
        the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from the Department 
        of State's list of State Sponsors of Terrorism until such time 
        that North Korea renounces state-sponsored kidnapping and 
        provides a full accounting of all abduction cases; and
            (5) admonishes the Government of the People's Republic of 
        China for the forced repatriation to North Korea of Han Man-
        taek, a South Korean prisoner-of-war and comrade-in-arms of the 
        United States, and for its failure to exercise sovereign 
        control over teams of North Korean agents operating freely 
        within its borders.

            Passed the House of Representatives July 11, 2005.

            Attest:

                                                                 Clerk.