[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 376 Engrossed in House (EH)]

H. Res. 376

                In the House of Representatives, U. S.,

                                                     December 13, 2011.
Whereas 61 years have passed since communist North Korea invaded the Republic of 
        Korea, thereby initiating the Korean War on June 25, 1950;
Whereas during the Korean War, nearly 1.8 million members of the United States 
        Armed Forces served in theater along with the forces of the Republic of 
        Korea and 20 other Allied nations under the United Nations Command to 
        defend freedom and democracy in the Korean Peninsula;
Whereas 58 years have passed after the signing of the ceasefire agreement at 
        Panmunjom on July 27, 1953, and the peninsula still technically remains 
        in a state of war;
Whereas talks for a peace treaty began on July 10, 1951, but were prolonged for 
        two years due to disagreement between the United Nations and North Korea 
        regarding the repatriation of prisoners of war (POWs);
Whereas the repatriation of Korean War POWs did not begin until September 4, 
        1953, at Freedom Village, Panmunjom;
Whereas the majority of surviving United Nations POWs were repatriated or turned 
        over to the Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission in accordance with 
        Section 3 of the Armistice Agreement, but the United Nations Command 
        noted a significant discrepancy between the Command's estimate of POWs 
        and the number given by North Korea;
Whereas the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office of the Department 
        of Defense (DPMO) lists more than 8,000 members of the United States 
        Armed Forces as POWs or missing in action who are unaccounted for from 
        the Korean War, including an estimated 5,500 in North Korea;
Whereas many South Korean POWs were never reported as POWs during the 
        negotiations, and it is estimated as many as 73,000 South Korean POWs 
        were not repatriated;
Whereas the Joint Field Activities conducted by the United States between 1996 
        and 2005 yielded over 220 sets of remains that are still being processed 
        for identification at Joint Prisoners of War, Missing in Action 
        Accounting Command in Hawaii;
Whereas the United States recovery operations in North Korea were suspended on 
        May 25, 2005, because of disagreements over communications facilities;
Whereas North Korea has consistently refused to discuss the POW issue, and the 
        exact number of South Korean POWs who were detained in North Korea after 
        the war is unknown, as is the number of those still alive in North 
        Korea;
Whereas approximately 100,000 South Korean civilians (political leaders, public 
        employees, lawyers, journalists, scholars, farmers, etc.) were forcibly 
        abducted by the North Korean Army during the Korean War, but North Korea 
        has neither admitted the abductions occurred nor accounted for or 
        repatriated the civilians;
Whereas many young South Korean men were forcibly conscripted into the North 
        Korean Army during the Korean War;
Whereas North Korea's abduction of South Korean civilians was carried out under 
        a well-planned scheme to make up the shortage of North Korea's own 
        needed manpower, and to communize South Korea;
Whereas during the Korean War Armistice Commission Conference, the United 
        Nations Command, led by the United States, negotiated strongly to seek 
        that South Korean civilians abducted by North Korea be exchanged for 
        Communist POWs held by the United Nations;
Whereas North Korea persistently delayed in POW/civilian internee negotiations, 
        refusing to acknowledge that they had committed a war crime of civilian 
        abduction, with a result that in the armistice talks Korean War 
        abductees were re-classified ``displaced persons'' and, consequently, 
        not a single person among them has been able to return home;
Whereas the South Korean families of the civilians abducted by North Korea six 
        decades ago have endured extreme pain and suffering due to the prolonged 
        separation and due to the knowledge that North Korea has neither 
        admitted that the abductions occurred nor accounted for or repatriated 
        these civilians;
Whereas former South Korean POWs and abductees who escaped from North Korea have 
        provided valuable and credible information on sightings of American and 
        South Korean POWs in concentration camps;
Whereas tens of thousands of friends and families of the POW/MIAs and abductees 
        from the Korean War, including the National Alliance of POW/MIA 
        Families, POW/MIA Freedom Fighters, the Coalition of Families of Korean 
        & Cold War POW/MIAs, the International Korean War Memorial Foundation 
        POW Affairs Committee, Rolling Thunder, Inc., the Korean War Abductees 
        Family Union, the Korea National Red Cross, World Veterans Federation, 
        and the National Assembly of Republic of Korea, have called for full 
        accounting of the POW/MIAs and abductees by North Korea; and
Whereas July 27, 2011, is the National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day, which 
        is a day of remembrance and recognition of Korean War veterans and those 
        persons who never returned home from the Korean War: Now, therefore, be 
        it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) recognizes that there are South Korean prisoners of war (POWs) 
        and civilian abductees from the Korean War who are still alive in North 
        Korea and want to be repatriated;
            (2) takes note of the U.S.-North Korean agreement of October 20, 
        2011, on resuming operations to search for and recover remains of 
        American POW/MIAs and calls upon the United States Government to 
        continue to explore the possibility that there could be American POW/
        MIAs still alive inside North Korea;
            (3) recommends that the United States and South Korean Governments 
        jointly investigate reports of sightings of American POW/MIAs;
            (4) encourages North Korea to repatriate any American and South 
        Korean POWs to their home countries to reunite with their families under 
        the International Humanitarian Law set forth in the Geneva Convention 
        relative to the treatment of Prisoners of War;
            (5) calls upon North Korea to admit to the abduction of more than 
        100,000 South Korean civilians and reveal the status of the abductees; 
        and
            (6) calls upon North Korea to agree to the family reunions and 
        immediate repatriation of the abductees under the International 
        Humanitarian Law set forth in the Geneva Convention relative to the 
        Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.
            Attest:

                                                                          Clerk.