[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1080 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 1080

Expressing the sense of Congress that coordinated action must be taken 
 by the United States Government and partner countries to address the 
   humanitarian and human rights crises facing North Koreans in the 
     People's Republic of China, including forced labor, arbitrary 
detention, human trafficking, and the forcible repatriation from China.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 13, 2024

Mrs. Steel (for herself, Mr. Smith of New Jersey, Mr. Gottheimer, Mrs. 
    Kim of California, and Mr. D'Esposito) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and 
  in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be 
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration 
  of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee 
                               concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Expressing the sense of Congress that coordinated action must be taken 
 by the United States Government and partner countries to address the 
   humanitarian and human rights crises facing North Koreans in the 
     People's Republic of China, including forced labor, arbitrary 
detention, human trafficking, and the forcible repatriation from China.

Whereas North Korean escapees and asylum seekers in China, the vast majority of 
        whom are women, are again being forcibly returned to the Democratic 
        People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) with the opening up of the 
        Sino-North Korean border in 2023;
Whereas the Governments of China and North Korea are now aggressively seeking to 
        locate and detain North Koreans who are in China and to forcibly return 
        them to North Korea, including by offering bounties for information on 
        North Koreans living in China;
Whereas, according to the 18 United Nations Special Experts on human rights in 
        an October 2023 statement urging the People's Republic of China to honor 
        its obligations under international law, ``there are long-standing and 
        credible reports to believe that North Korea escapees forced returned to 
        [North Korea] would be subjected to torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading 
        treatment and punishment and other serious human rights violations.'';
Whereas the 2014 Commission on Inquiry on Human Rights North Korea and the 
        United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights condemned the long-
        standing, systematic and gross violations of human rights occurring in 
        North Korea, including those that may amount to crimes against humanity;
Whereas, according to the 2014 United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human 
        Rights in North Korea report, the Government of North Korea holds up to 
        120,000 political prisoners in camps managed by its State Security 
        Agency through the use of forced labor, beatings, torture, and 
        executions. Many prisoners also die from disease, starvation, and 
        exposure;
Whereas the Government of North Korea imposes punishments, including execution, 
        for crimes such as attempted defection, slander of the Korean Workers 
        Party, listening to foreign broadcasts, possessing printed matter that 
        is considered reactionary by the Korean Workers Party, and holding 
        prohibited religious beliefs;
Whereas the combination of political, social, and religious persecution and 
        acute food insecurity in North Korea cause many North Koreans to flee to 
        China, a trend that has occurred for over 30 years now;
Whereas an estimated 80 percent of North Korean asylum seekers are women and 
        girls who are particularly vulnerable to trafficking for the purpose of 
        sexual exploitation, forced labor, or forced marriages and detention in 
        China and if forcibly returned to North Korea they may face forced 
        abortions, rape, and other forms of violence in detention;
Whereas, according to the State Department's latest Trafficking in Persons 
        Report, approximately 30,000 children in China who were born to North 
        Korean mothers and Chinese fathers are unregistered, making them 
        stateless and ineligible for medical care, schooling, and other 
        government support in the People's Republic of China;
Whereas in order to generate income for the Government, including its illicit 
        nuclear weapons program, North Koreans are sent abroad, most often to 
        China and Russia, to work under conditions that reportedly amount to 
        forced labor, including in seafood process factories in Liaoning 
        Province of China;
Whereas seafood processed by North Koreans in Liaoning Province of China enter 
        the United States market, including baby clams, squid, and haddock 
        according to reports published by the Outlaw Ocean Project;
Whereas China and Russia violate with impunity United Nations Security Council 
        resolution 2397 (para. 8) which prohibits countries from employing North 
        Korean workers after December 2019;
Whereas any good made by North Korean labor, wholly or in part, is prohibited 
        from entry into the United States market by section 321 of the 
        Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (P.L. 115-44);
Whereas Members of Congress, on a bipartisan basis, have urged the Department of 
        Homeland Security to take action to stop seafood imports from China to 
        enter the United States market, until importers show that no North 
        Korean or Uyghur labor was used in processing;
Whereas, according to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of 
        human rights in North Korea in 2023, as many as 2,000 North Korean 
        asylum seekers and refugees were arrested and detained in China during 
        the COVID-19 lockdown;
Whereas at a July 2023 hearing at the Congressional-Executive Commission on 
        China titled ``North Korean Refugees and the Imminent Danger of Forced 
        Repatriation from China,'' satellite images were shown detailing 
        expanded detention facilities for North Koreans in China;
Whereas United Nations Third Committee adopted a resolution (A/C.3.78/L.39) in 
        November 2023, reminded UN member states, without naming the People's 
        Republic of China, to comply with its obligations to protect North 
        Korean refugees under the United Nations Convention Relating to the 
        Status of Refugees of 1951 (1951 United Nations Refugee Convention), and 
        its Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees of 1967 (1967 United 
        Nations Refugee Protocol), which defines a refugee as a person who, 
        ``owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, 
        religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or 
        political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is 
        unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the 
        protection of that country'';
Whereas, despite the obligations of the People's Republic of China, as a state 
        party to the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention and the 1967 United 
        Nations Refugee Protocol, the Government routinely classifies North 
        Koreans in China as ``economic migrants'' and forcibly returns them to 
        North Korea without regard to the reason they escaped North Korea or the 
        serious threat of persecution they face upon their return;
Whereas the United Nations Resolution of November 2023 ``strongly urge(d)'' 
        United Nations member states to respect the principle of nonrefoulment, 
        or forced deportations, given the ``internment, torture, [and] other 
        cruel and degrading treatment or punishment . . . including the death 
        penalty,'' faced by North Koreans forcibly returned from the People's 
        Republic of China;
Whereas the People's Republic of China is a signatory to the United Nations 
        Convention Against Torture, which obligates United Nations member states 
        to protect individuals, regardless of their migratory status, if there 
        is a risk of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or 
        punishment, including the death penalty or enforced disappearances upon 
        return;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China continues to deny 
        access to its border regions with North Korea to the United Nations High 
        Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and to deny the UNHCR staff in the PRC 
        to determine the status of asylum or refugee claims, as the People's 
        Republic of China is obligated to do by its international legal 
        obligations: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) strongly encourages the President, the Secretary of 
        State, and all other relevant Cabinet Officers to raise with 
        the officials of the Government of the People's Republic of 
        China, in both bilateral and relevant multilateral settings, 
        the interests of the United States in protecting North Koreans 
        seeking asylum or those trafficked in the People's Republic of 
        China, including through--
                    (A) encouraging fulfilling of international 
                obligations to protect refugees and address human 
                trafficking within the People's Republic of China under 
                the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention and the 1967 
                Refugee Protocol; Article 3 of the Convention Against 
                Torture, and the Palermo Protocol, all which the which 
                the Government of the People's Republic of China has 
                acceded to and ratified;
                    (B) using the voice, vote, and influence at the 
                United Nations to ensure that the UNHCR is able to 
                protect North Korea asylum seekers and provide them 
                with a reasonable opportunity to request asylum and be 
                processed in-country;
                    (C) ensuring that the Government of the People's 
                Republic of China understands the interests of the 
                United States and allied nations in ending North Korean 
                labor in the People's Republic of China as such labor 
                is a source of foreign capital for the North Korean 
                Government which is diverted to its nuclear program;
                    (D) using the voice, vote, and influence at the 
                United Nations to ensure that the People's Republic of 
                China and other United Nations member states fulfill 
                United Nations Resolution 2397 (para. 8) prohibiting 
                the use of North Korean labor; and
                    (E) ensuring that the Government of the People's 
                Republic of China remains fully aware that goods 
                produced with the labor of North Koreans in China are 
                presumptively prohibited entry into the United States 
                market under Countering America's Adversaries Through 
                Sanctions Act (P.L. 115-44);
            (2) encourages the Secretary of State to--
                    (A) coordinate diplomatic actions with the 
                Governments of South Korea, Japan, and other concerned 
                Governments to end the forced deportations and forced 
                labor of North Koreans living in China;
                    (B) build coalitions with allies and partners at 
                the United Nations to--
                            (i) fully implement the recommendations of 
                        the United Nation's Commission of Inquiry on 
                        Human Rights in North Korea;
                            (ii) continue requests for briefings at the 
                        United Nations Security Council by the High 
                        Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special 
                        Rapporteur on the Situation in North Korea;
                            (iii) schedule regular Arria-formula 
                        meetings at the United Nations Security Council 
                        on the situation of North Koreans in China;
                            (iv) coordinate joint actions and 
                        resolutions on the issue of the forced 
                        repatriation or forcible return of North 
                        Koreans from China and other human rights 
                        abuses experienced in China with like-minded 
                        allies at the United Nations Human Rights 
                        Council; and
                            (v) press for UNHCR access to North Koreans 
                        seeking asylum in China;
                    (C) consider issuing an atrocity determination for 
                the Government of the People's Republic of China for 
                its treatment of North Korean asylum-seekers, laborers, 
                women and girls in China and the fact that North 
                Koreans forcibly repatriated or returned will face 
                arbitrary detention, torture, hard labor, or even 
                execution;
                    (D) use existing sanctions authorities found in the 
                Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act and 
                the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 to hold 
                accountable officials from the Government of the 
                People's Republic of China, or other United Nations 
                member states, who knowingly engage in the forcible 
                deportation of North Koreans and for failing to address 
                the human trafficking of North Koreans, including 
                Chinese Communist Party officials in charge of 
                provinces near the North Korean border; and
                    (E) redesignate the Government of the People's 
                Republic of China as a ``Tier 3'' country for its 
                failure to address trafficking in persons in China and 
                use the tools available in the Trafficking Victims 
                Protection Act of 2000 to provide incentives for the 
                government to fulfill its obligations under 
                international human rights and refugee law;
            (3) encourages the Secretary of the Department of Homeland 
        Security, in coordination with the Secretary of the Department 
        of Labor, to address the issue of forced labor of North Korean 
        workers in the People's Republic of China including through--
                    (A) enforcing the Countering America's Adversaries 
                Through Sanctions Act (P.L. 115-44) provision that 
                presumptively prohibits entry into the United States 
                market of any goods produced with the labor of North 
                Koreans;
                    (B) reporting to Congress on any imports to the 
                United States of goods produced by North Koreans 
                working in the People's Republic of China;
                    (C) issuing a Withhold Release Order for Liaoning 
                Province of the People's Republic of China where the 
                seafood industry using North Korean labor is based;
                    (D) issuing a Withhold Release Order for any 
                factory where North Korean labor is employed; and
                    (E) issuing a joint advisory with other relevant 
                Cabinet-level agencies on imported seafood processed in 
                China to ensure that all Federal agencies end the 
                sourcing of seafood processed by forced labor or caught 
                by fleets of the People's Republic of China engaged in 
                illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing.
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