[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 705 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 705

Condemning hard-labor prison camps in the Democratic People's Republic 
          of Korea as an egregious violation of human rights.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 31, 2009

    Mr. Minnick (for himself and Mr. Wolf) submitted the following 
   resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Condemning hard-labor prison camps in the Democratic People's Republic 
          of Korea as an egregious violation of human rights.

Whereas the U.S. Department of State estimates that 150,000-200,000 prisoners 
        are detained in labor camps, comprising roughly 1 percent of North 
        Korea's 22,000,000 people;
Whereas satellite photographs corroborate survivors' stories and reveal vast 
        labor camps in the mountains of North Korea;
Whereas guilt by association is legal under North Korean law and up to three 
        generations of a convicted prisoner's family may be imprisoned in labor 
        camps;
Whereas, according to a recently published report by the nongovernmental United 
        States Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, thousands of prisoners 
        are forced to work to their deaths in mining, logging, farming, and 
        industrial enterprises;
Whereas prisoners are sent to prison camps without any judicial process, denied 
        contact with the outside world, and forced to work up to 15 hours a day 
        and up to 29 days a month until they die of malnutrition-related 
        illnesses;
Whereas one camp contains as many as 50,000 prisoners in an area that is 31 
        miles long and 25 miles wide, an area larger than the city of Los 
        Angeles;
Whereas many prisoners are allowed just one set of clothes, and denied soap, 
        socks, or underclothes, and must subsist on corn and salt and are under 
        constant threat of being executed;
Whereas the Government of North Korea does not acknowledge the existence of 
        these prison camps and the issue has not been discussed in meetings 
        between United States diplomats and North Korean officials; and
Whereas the Democratic People's Republic of Korea sentenced United States 
        reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee to 12 years of hard labor and should 
        release them on humanitarian grounds: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) condemns hard-labor prison camps in the Democratic 
        People's Republic of Korea as an egregious violation of human 
        rights;
            (2) urges the United States Government to demand that the 
        Democratic People's Republic of Korea immediately shut down 
        these camps and end all persecution of political prisoners; and
            (3) demands the Government of the Democratic People's 
        Republic of Korea immediately release United States reporters 
        Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who were sentenced in June 2009 to 12 
        years in a North Korean labor camp.
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