[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 43 (Tuesday, March 18, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H1917-H1919]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 URGING PASSAGE OF RESOLUTION ADDRESSING HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN NORTH 
   KOREA AT 59TH SESSION OF UNITED NATIONS COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and 
agree to the resolution (H. Res. 109) urging passage of a resolution 
addressing human rights abuses in North Korea at the 59th session of 
the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, and calling on the 
Government of North Korea to respect and protect the human rights of 
its citizens, as amended.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                              H. Res. 109

       Whereas the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (in this 
     preamble referred to as ``North Korea'') is, in the words of 
     the United States Department of State, ``a dictatorship under 
     the absolute rule of the Korean Workers' Party'' that 
     ``prohibits freedom of speech, the press, assembly, and 
     association . . . [and] restricts freedom of religion, 
     citizens' movements, and worker rights'';
       Whereas according to the State Department, ``[t]he [North 
     Korean] Penal Code is Draconian, stipulating capital 
     punishment and confiscation of assets for a wide variety of 
     `crimes against the revolution,' including defection, 
     attempted defection, slander of the policies of the party or 
     State, listening to foreign broadcasts, writing `reactionary' 
     letters, and possessing reactionary printed matter'';
       Whereas, as noted in the State Department Country Reports 
     on Human Rights Practices, the North Korean regime executes 
     political prisoners, opponents of the regime, some 
     repatriated defectors, some members of underground churches, 
     and others, sometimes at public meetings attended by workers, 
     students, and school children;
       Whereas the North Korean regime subjects all its citizens 
     to systematic, intensive political and ideological 
     indoctrination in support of the cult of personality 
     glorifying Kim Jong Il and the late Kim Il Sung which, in the 
     words of the State Department, ``approaches the level of a 
     state religion'';
       Whereas the North Korean regime divides its population into 
     categories, based on perceived loyalty to the Party and the 
     leadership, which determine access to employment, higher 
     education, place of residence, medical facilities, and other 
     resources;
       Whereas the North Korean regime attempts to control all 
     information, artistic expression, and academic works inside 
     North Korea and strictly curtails freedom of speech;
       Whereas the Government of North Korea holds an estimated 
     150,000 to 200,000 political prisoners in camps that its 
     State Security Agency manages through the use of forced 
     labor, beatings, torture, and executions, and in which many 
     prisoners also die from disease, starvation, and exposure;
       Whereas according to eyewitness testimony provided to the 
     Committee on International Relations of the House of 
     Representatives by camp survivors, camp inmates have been 
     used as sources of slave labor for the production of export 
     goods, as targets for martial arts practice, and as 
     experimental victims in the testing of chemical and 
     biological poisons;
       Whereas according to eyewitness testimony provided to the 
     Committee on International Relations by a camp survivor, 
     female camp prisoners are not permitted to have children and 
     their newborn babies are routinely and brutally killed by 
     camp authorities;
       Whereas according to the State Department ``[g]enuine 
     religious freedom does not exist'' in North Korea and, in the 
     words of the United States Commission on International 
     Religious Freedom, ``[t]he North Korean state severely 
     represses public and private religious activities'';
       Whereas the United States Commission on International 
     Religious Freedom has highlighted ``reports that [North 
     Korean] officials have arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and 
     sometimes executed North Korean citizens who were found to 
     have ties with overseas Christian evangelical groups 
     operating across the border in China, as well as those who 
     engaged in such unauthorized religious activities as public 
     religious expression and persuasion'';
       Whereas according to eyewitness testimony provided to the 
     Committee on International Relations in May 2002, a North 
     Korean prison camp survivor witnessed a group of Christian 
     prisoners being tortured to death in 1990 for refusing to 
     repudiate their faith;
       Whereas more than 1,000,000 North Koreans are estimated to 
     have died of starvation since 1995 because of the failure of 
     the centralized agricultural system operated by the 
     Government of North Korea;
       Whereas the risk of starvation and the threat of 
     persecution in North Korea have caused many thousands of 
     North Koreans to flee their homeland, primarily into the 
     People's Republic of China;
       Whereas the Governments of the People's Republic of China 
     and North Korea have been conducting aggressive campaigns to 
     locate North Koreans who are in the People's Republic of 
     China without permission and to forcibly return them to North 
     Korea;
       Whereas North Koreans who seek asylum while in the People's 
     Republic of China are routinely imprisoned and tortured, and 
     in some cases killed, after they are returned to North Korea; 
     and
       Whereas the 59th session of the United Nations Commission 
     on Human Rights is scheduled to be held in Geneva, 
     Switzerland from March 17 to April 25, 2003: Now, therefore, 
     be it
       Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
       (1) urges the Secretary of State to support efforts to 
     draft, introduce, and pass a resolution addressing human 
     rights abuses in North Korea at the 59th session the United 
     Nations Commission on Human Rights;
       (2) urges all members of the United Nations Commission on 
     Human Rights to support a resolution addressing human rights 
     abuses in North Korea at the 59th session of the United 
     Nations Commission on Human Rights; and
       (3) calls on the Government of the Democratic People's 
     Republic of Korea to respect and protect the human rights of 
     its citizens, such as those recognized in the Universal 
     Declaration of Human Rights.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New 
Jersey (Mr. Smith) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) each 
will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith).
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution.
  I thank our cosponsors for being a part of this, including the 
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf), the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
(Mr. Pitts), the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Lincoln Diaz-Balart), the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Chabot), the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. 
Ros-Lehtinen), the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Bereuter), the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Hoeffel), the gentleman from Florida 
(Mr. Wexler), the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey), the 
gentlewoman from Guam (Ms. Bordallo), the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. 
Leach), the gentleman from American Samoa (Mr. Faleomavaega), the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Gallegly), and the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Wamp), a good cross-section of Members, a bipartisan 
group, supporting House Resolution 109.
  Mr. Speaker, the Government of North Korea is an historical 
anachronism, a totalitarianist Stalinist regime under the control of 
the Korean Workers Party, the so-called Dear Leader, or Kim Jong-Il, a 
man who demands godlike reverence and enjoys a decadent, opulent 
lifestyle while hundreds of thousands of children and their parents 
starve to death.
  His regime, his dictatorship, Mr. Speaker, is one of the worst 
systematic abusers of human rights in the world today. Inside North 
Korea, there are no genuine freedoms of speech, religion, or assembly. 
The penal code imposes a penalty of death for a wide variety of crimes 
against the revolution, including defection, attempted defection, 
slander of party policy, listening to foreign broadcasts, and imagine 
that, one listens to a radio show and one can be charged with crimes 
against the revolution, and writing letters or possessing printed 
material that is considered reactionary.
  The regime maintains an extensive system, Mr. Speaker, of political 
prison camps that hold an estimated 200,000 prisoners, including entire 
families of those suspected of disloyalty toward the dictatorship.
  As confirmed by eyewitness testimony presented before the Committee 
on International Relations last year, camp conditions are horrific. 
Starvation, overwork, and disease kill most of the camp inmates. Others 
are used as targets for martial arts practice or as guinea pigs for 
lethal tests of chemical weapons.
  Christians are tortured to death for refusing to renounce their faith 
in one who is greater than the Dear Leader. Female prisoners are not 
allowed to bear additional children, and their newborns are routinely 
and brutally killed before their eyes, usually by smothering or having 
their necks broken.

[[Page H1918]]

  Based on reputable reporting, Mr. Speaker, House Resolution 109 
recounts the abominable conditions inside North Korea and exhorts the 
dictatorship in Pyongyang to respect human rights for its citizenry. 
More immediately, it urges the Department of State to support the 
introduction and passage of a resolution on human rights abuses in 
North Korea at the current session of the U.N. Commission on Human 
Rights in Geneva.
  At the State Department's suggestion, we included language that urges 
other members of the Commission to support that effort. While the 
Commission has censored numerous countries in recent years, North Korea 
has inexplicably escaped its notice. We hope that oversight will be 
corrected during this session.
  I want to thank those 19 bipartisan cosponsors, particularly the 
gentleman from Illinois (Chairman Hyde); the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. 
Leach), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Asia and Pacific; and the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), the ranking member of the 
committee, for their support.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution. First, I 
would like to commend my good friend, the gentleman from New Jersey 
(Mr. Smith), the vice-chairman of our committee, for his continued and 
steadfast leadership on all issues relating to human rights.
  The political, human rights and security situation in North Korea is 
deteriorating rapidly, Mr. Speaker. It is critically important that our 
Nation have a strategy for addressing the whole host of our concerns 
with North Korea. We indeed have a crisis on the Korean Peninsula, and 
the sooner the executive branch engages at the highest levels to deal 
with that crisis, the better.
  When policymakers, journalists, academics, and Members of Congress 
discuss the North Korean situation, the natural focus of attention is 
on North Korea's dangerous and destabilizing nuclear and missile 
programs. North Korea's nuclear program poses a clear and present 
danger to all civilized nations, particularly with North Korea's 
increasingly advanced medium- and long-range missile program. But this 
legitimate focus on North Korean security issues often obscures the 
horrendous human rights situation in that country.
  Mr. Speaker, the United States must develop a comprehensive approach 
to North Korea, one that allows us to tackle North Korea's weapons of 
mass destruction and the destruction that North Korea's leaders are 
imposing on their own people by their human rights policies.
  Mr. Speaker, it is evident that the world has no greater abuser of 
internationally recognized human rights than the Government of North 
Korea. Over the past 8 years, North Korea's leaders allowed more than 1 
million citizens to starve to death rather than to implement economic 
and agricultural reforms. The children who survive starvation face a 
life marred by permanent physical and mental disabilities caused by 
their severe and long-term malnutrition. Meanwhile, the North Korean 
leader, Kim Jong-Il, imports the finest foods and luxury items for 
himself and his entourage, living in the lap of luxury in Pyongyang.
  Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, death and destruction are only part of 
North Korea's pattern of gross violations of human rights. Those 
citizens who make even the mildest criticisms of the government are 
immediately imprisoned, tortured, or killed. There is no freedom of 
assembly, no freedom of worship, no freedom of speech, no political 
freedom.
  In short, Mr. Speaker, North Korea is the worst kind of totalitarian 
police state. The United States and other civilized nations must make 
it clear that vast improvements in North Korea's human rights situation 
must be part of a dialogue with North Korea, and normalization of 
relations will not occur under current circumstances.
  The best way to send that signal from the international community is 
for the United States to pursue a resolution critical of North Korea's 
human rights record at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in 
Geneva. Our resolution urges the administration to undertake this 
initiative, and I strongly urge all of my colleagues to support this 
resolution.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may 
consume to the gentleman from California (Mr. Royce), the distinguished 
chairman of our Subcommittee on Africa and a leader on issues of human 
rights relevant to North Korea.
  Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time to 
me. I rise in support of this resolution urging the United States to 
work towards passage of a resolution on North Korean human rights 
abuses at the U.N. Commission on Human Rights.
  I am a cosponsor of this resolution, and I commend the Committee on 
International Relations vice-chairman, the gentleman from New Jersey 
(Mr. Smith), for his attention to this issue. I also want to commend 
the ranking member, the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), for his 
attention. Both of these gentlemen have spent much time, have spent 
much of their careers, trying to focus this body on human rights and to 
address human rights concerns around this world.
  Last year, this House passed legislation, House Concurrent Resolution 
213, recognizing the horrific plight of North Korean refugees who risk 
their lives to escape into China. That legislation at the time included 
language encouraging the Secretary of State to work to pass a 
resolution regarding human rights in North Korea at the 59th session of 
the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. That session began 
yesterday.
  Mr. Speaker, North Korea is one of the worst systemic abusers of 
human rights in the world today. North Koreans are held hostage to 
their so-called Dear Leader, Kim Jong-Il. North Koreans are put to 
death for a very wide variety of crimes against the revolution, as he 
calls it, including listening to foreign broadcasts or possessing 
printed material that is considered reactionary by that regime.
  The prison camps in that regime hold an estimated 200,000 prisoners. 
Last year, the Subcommittee on Asia held a hearing to look at the 
nightmarish conditions in these North Korean prison camps. We heard 
testimony from North Koreans who had escaped the camps, and these were 
North Koreans in disfavor with that Stalinist regime, those who had 
been convicted of ``anticriminal acts.'' They were basically political 
prisoners.
  As we heard their testimony, they reported to us that the inmates in 
those camps were being slowly worked to death. These were work camps. 
We heard from North Koreans who witnessed prisoners being gassed as 
part of a chemical weapons experiment. We also heard testimony from Dr. 
Norbert Vollersten, a German physician and one of the few Westerners to 
spend extended time in North Korea. Dr. Vollersten has launched a 
worldwide campaign to tell anyone who will listen what he witnessed in 
North Korea. Dr. Vollersten has asked why the world does not hear more 
and does not know more about what he describes as Nazi-type atrocities 
that are occurring to North Korean people.
  As we know, the North Korean regime uses food as a weapon against its 
own people, apportioning and withholding resources based on citizens' 
perceived loyalty to the regime. In many parts of that country, in many 
counties, whole counties, whole provinces, are perceived not to be 
loyal enough to receive food aid.

                              {time}  1500

  It is largely an untold story that from 1994 to 1998 at least 2 
million North Koreans perished from starvation and related diseases 
while nearly 50 percent of North Korean children are malnourished to 
the point that their physical and mental health is compromised. 
Responsibility for this unparalleled cruelty lies squarely with the 
regime of Kim Jong Il.
  The upcoming session provides an opportunity, the session in the 
United Nations, for the administration and others throughout the world 
to focus on these horrific realities in North Korea which have 
unfortunately been overlooked. And I am convinced that a

[[Page H1919]]

concerted international focus on the North Korean regime's human rights 
abuses would advance stability in Northeast Asia. I am hard pressed to 
see how turning away from this ugly reality is in the interest of 
anyone but the North Korean regime.
  Mr. Speaker, we face a critical challenge on the Korean peninsula. I 
urge the passage of this timely resolution.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the 
gentlewoman from Guam (Ms. Bordallo), my friend and our distinguished 
colleague, who in the short time she has been with us has already made 
significant contributions to the work of this body.
  Ms. BORDALLO. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Lantos) for his very kind words and the gentleman from 
New Jersey (Mr. Smith) for their leadership on human rights around the 
world and in particular for introducing this resolution for which I 
rise in strong support.
  The Korean people are great friends of the United States and have a 
proud history and a vibrant culture. I, therefore, follow with great 
sadness the daily oppression suffered by the people of North Korea. 
Through meeting the many Koreans that come to Guam and by having 
personally traveled to Korea on many, many occasions, I have come to 
appreciate how difficult life is under Kim Jong Il's dictatorship.
  The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has 
described the North Koreans as being amongst the least-free people on 
this Earth with no personal freedoms or protections for their rights. 
In their most recent report on the Democratic People's Republic of 
Korea, the commission said that North Koreans are barely surviving 
under a regime that denies basic human dignity and lets them starve 
while pursuing military might and weapons of mass destruction.
  Yesterday, Mr. Speaker, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights 
opened its 59th session in Geneva. Human rights are perhaps the most 
important issue the international community can address. Human rights 
is the most important guiding principle underlying the work of the 
United Nations. The commission must and should address the human rights 
abuses in North Korea. It is my fervent hope that one day Koreans from 
both North and South will come to visit my island of Guam in unity and 
peace.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of House Resolution 109. I strongly 
support it.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, we have no further requests for time, and I 
yield back the balance of my time.


                             General Leave

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that 
all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and 
extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H. Res. 109 the 
bill under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Petri). Is there objection to the 
request of the gentleman from New Jersey?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentlewoman from Guam (Ms. 
Bordallo) for her very eloquent remarks and my good friend from 
California (Mr. Lantos). We need a very strong show of support by our 
colleagues today, Mr. Speaker, on behalf of this resolution. The U.N. 
committee is meeting as we speak. This issue must be brought so the 
kind of scrutiny and, I would say, condemnation for these egregious 
abuses of human rights can be brought to the fore. North Korea has a 
horrific record on human rights; and it is about time the international 
community said so in one loud voice: no more.
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
support H. Res. 109 urging passage of a UN Resolution addressing human 
rights in North Korea, and to commend my colleague, the Honorable Chris 
Smith, a true leader on the issue, for introducing this resolution.
  The human rights abuses in North Korea are a human tragedy of the 
worst proportions. Kim Jong Il's prison camp system is a chilling 
reminder of the methods used by totalitarian dictators to suppress 
their people. Behind the veil of North Korea's closed society, 
countless citizens starve to death while the regime continues to spend 
its limited resources on building nuclear weapons. Public executions 
are common, newborn babies of prisoners are routinely killed by being 
smothered or by having their necks broken, and prisoners are used as 
guinea pigs for chemical weapon experiments.
  A truly disturbing tactic of the North Korean regime seeks submission 
from dissidents by exacting retribution on family members. Persons who 
resist the regime are punished, but their parents, siblings, and other 
relatives may also be punished. Many fear for their families 
particularly if they flee as refugees. According to Human Rights Watch, 
one man who had suffered years in a political prison camp because of 
his father's supposed disloyalty and eventual defection feared trying 
to flee himself. He stated, ``I thought it would be all right to lose 
my own life, but I hated to think that my act might harm my mother and 
brother.''
  According to the State Department there continue to be reports of 
extrajudicial killings and disappearances. The penal code is draconian, 
and stipulates capital punishment and confiscation of assets for a wide 
variety of ``crimes against the revolution,'' including defection, 
attempted defection, slander of the policies of the party or State, 
listening to foreign broadcasts, writing ``reactionary'' letters, and 
possessing reactionary printed matter.
  I urge my colleagues to vote for this resolution which would urge the 
State Department to draft, introduce, and work toward the passage of a 
resolution addressing human rights abuses in North Korea at the 59th 
session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. The United 
Nations must highlight the atrocities of the North Korean regime.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, we have no further requests for 
time, and I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) that the House suspend the rules 
and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 109, as amended.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds of 
those present have voted in the affirmative.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be 
postponed.

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