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

112th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 376

Calling for the repatriation of POW/MIAs and abductees from the Korean 
                                  War.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 27, 2011

 Mr. Rangel submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
                    the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Calling for the repatriation of POW/MIAs and abductees from the Korean 
                                  War.

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 postponed 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;
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 the teams were prohibited from using 
        communications equipment;
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 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 there are American and South Korean 
        prisoners of war and civilian abductees from the Korean War who 
        are still alive in North Korea and who want to be repatriated;
            (2) calls upon the United States Government to resume 
        search and recovery operations in North Korea for remains of 
        American POWs;
            (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.
                                 <all>