[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 78 (Tuesday, May 13, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H3747-H3750]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         NORTH KOREAN HUMAN RIGHTS REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2008

  Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 5834) to amend the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 to 
promote respect for the fundamental human rights of the people of North 
Korea, and for other purposes, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 5834

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``North Korean Human Rights 
     Reauthorization Act of 2008''.

     SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

        Congress finds the following:
       (1) The North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 (Public Law 
     108-333; 22 U.S.C. 7801 et seq.) (in this section referred to 
     as ``the Act'') was the product of broad, bipartisan 
     consensus in Congress regarding the promotion of human 
     rights, transparency in the delivery of humanitarian 
     assistance, and refugee protection.
       (2) In addition to the longstanding commitment of the 
     United States to refugee and human rights advocacy, the 
     United States is home to the largest Korean population 
     outside of northeast Asia, and many in the two-million strong 
     Korean-American community have family ties to North Korea.
       (3) Human rights and humanitarian conditions inside North 
     Korea are deplorable, North Korean refugees remain acutely 
     vulnerable, and the findings in section 3 of the Act remain 
     accurate today.
       (4) The Government of China is conducting an increasingly 
     aggressive campaign to locate and forcibly return border-
     crossers to North Korea, where they routinely face torture 
     and imprisonment, and sometimes execution. According to 
     recent reports, the Chinese Government is shutting down 
     Christian churches and imprisoning people who help North 
     Korean defectors, and has increased the bounty paid for 
     turning in a North Korean refugee by a factor of sixteen, to 
     an amount roughly equivalent to the average annual income in 
     China.
       (5) In an attempt to deter escape attempts, the Government 
     of North Korea has reportedly stepped up its public execution 
     of border-crossers and those who help others cross into 
     China, including the February 20, 2008, shooting of 13 women 
     and 2 men in Onsung County, and the March 30, 2008, execution 
     of three residents in Hyesan. As is commonly the case, 
     employees and residents of nearby institutions, enterprises, 
     and neighborhoods were required to attend and observe those 
     killings.
       (6) In spite of the requirement of the Act that the Special 
     Envoy on Human Rights in North Korea (the ``Special Envoy'') 
     report to the Congress no later than April 16, 2005, a 
     Special Envoy was not appointed until August 19, 2005, more 
     than four months after the reporting deadline.
       (7) The Special Envoy appointed by the President has filled 
     that position on a part-time basis only.
       (8) On February 21, 2006, a bipartisan group of senior 
     Members of the House and Senate wrote Secretary of State 
     Condoleezza Rice ``to express [their] deep concern for the 
     lack of progress in funding and implementing the key 
     provisions of the North Korean Human Rights Act'', 
     particularly the lack of North Korean refugee admissions to 
     the United States.
       (9) Although the United States refugee resettlement program 
     remains the largest in the world by far, the United States 
     has resettled only 37 North Koreans in the period from 2004 
     through 2007.
       (10) From the end of 2004 through 2007, the Republic of 
     Korea resettled 5,961 North Koreans.
       (11) Extensive delays in assessment and processing at 
     overseas posts have led numerous North Korean refugees to 
     abandon their quest for United States resettlement, and long 
     waits (of more than a year in some cases) have been the 
     source of considerable discouragement and frustration among 
     refugees, many of whom are awaiting United States 
     resettlement in circumstances that are unsafe and insecure.
       (12) From 2000 through 2006, the United States granted 
     asylum to 15 North Koreans, as compared to 60 North Korean 
     asylum grantees in the United Kingdom, and 135 in Germany 
     during that same period.

     SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

       It is the sense of Congress that--
       (1) the United States should make it a priority to seek 
     broader permission and greater cooperation from foreign 
     governments to allow the United States to process North 
     Korean refugees overseas for resettlement in the United 
     States, through persistent diplomacy by senior officials of 
     the United States, including United States ambassadors to 
     Asia-Pacific nations;
       (2) at the same time that careful screening of intending 
     refugees is important, the United States also should make 
     every effort to ensure that its screening, processing, and 
     resettlement of North Korean refugees are as efficient and 
     expeditious as possible;
       (3) the Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues 
     should be a full-time position within the Department of State 
     in order to properly promote and coordinate North Korean 
     human rights, humanitarian, and refugee issues, as intended 
     by the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 (Public Law 108-
     333; 22 U.S.C. 7801 et seq.);
       (4) in an effort to more efficiently and actively 
     participate in humanitarian burden-sharing, the United States 
     should approach our ally, the Republic of Korea, to revisit 
     and explore new opportunities for coordinating efforts to 
     screen and resettle North Koreans who have expressed a wish 
     to pursue resettlement in the United States and have not yet 
     availed themselves of any right to citizenship they may enjoy 
     under the Constitution of the Republic of Korea; and
       (5) because there are genuine refugees among North Koreans 
     fleeing into China who face severe punishments upon their 
     forcible return, the United States should urge the Government 
     of China to--
       (A) immediately halt its forcible repatriation of North 
     Koreans;
       (B) fulfill its obligations pursuant to the 1951 United 
     Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, the 
     1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, and the 
     1995 Agreement on the Upgrading of the UNHCR Mission in the 
     People's Republic of China to UNHCR Branch Office in the 
     People's Republic of China; and
       (C) allow the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 
     (UNHCR) unimpeded access to North Koreans inside China to 
     determine whether they are refugees and whether they require 
     assistance.

     SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.

        Section 5(1)(A) of the North Korean Human Rights Act of 
     2004 (Public Law 108-333; 22 U.S.C. 7803(1)(A)) is amended by 
     striking ``International Relations'' and inserting ``Foreign 
     Affairs''.

     SEC. 5. SUPPORT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY PROGRAMS.

        Section 102(b)(1) of the North Korean Human Rights Act of 
     2004 (22 U.S.C. 7812(b)(1)) is amended by inserting after 
     ``2008'' the following: ``and $4,000,000 for each of fiscal 
     years 2009 through 2012''.

     SEC. 6. RADIO BROADCASTING TO NORTH KOREA.

        Not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of 
     this Act, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) shall 
     submit to the appropriate congressional committees, as 
     defined in section 5(1) of the North Korean Human Rights Act 
     of 2004 (22 U.S.C. 7803(1)), a report that describes the 
     status and content of current United States broadcasting to 
     North Korea and the extent to which the BBG has achieved the 
     goal of 12-hour-per-day broadcasting to North Korea pursuant 
     to section 103 of such Act (22 U.S.C. 7813).

     SEC. 7. ACTIONS TO PROMOTE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION.

        Section 104 of the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 
     (22 U.S.C. 7814) is amended--
       (1) in subsection (b)(1), by striking ``2008'' and 
     inserting ``2012''; and
       (2) in subsection (c), by striking ``in each of the 3 years 
     thereafter'' and inserting ``annually through 2012''.

     SEC. 8. SPECIAL ENVOY ON NORTH KOREAN HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES.

       Section 107 of the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 
     (22 U.S.C. 7817) is amended--
       (1) in the section heading, by striking ``HUMAN RIGHTS IN 
     NORTH KOREA'' and inserting ``NORTH KOREAN HUMAN RIGHTS 
     ISSUES'';
       (2) in subsection (a)--
       (A) in the first sentence--
       (i) by striking ``human rights in North Korea'' and 
     inserting ``North Korean human rights issues''; and
       (ii) by inserting before the period at the end the 
     following: ``, by and with the advice and consent of the 
     Senate'';
       (B) in the second sentence, by inserting before the period 
     at the end the following: ``who shall have the rank of 
     ambassador and shall hold the office at the pleasure of the 
     President'';
       (3) in subsection (b), by inserting before the period at 
     the end the following: ``, including the protection of those 
     people who have fled as refugees'';
       (4) in subsection (c)--
       (A) by redesignating paragraphs (1) through (6) as 
     paragraphs (2) through (7), respectively;
       (B) by inserting before paragraph (2), as so redesignated, 
     the following new paragraph:

[[Page H3748]]

       ``(1) coordinate the implementation of activities carried 
     out pursuant to this Act;''; and
       (C) in paragraph (5), as so redesignated, by striking 
     ``section 102'' and inserting ``sections 102 and 104''; and
       (5) in subsection (d), by striking ``for the subsequent 5 
     year-period'' and inserting ``thereafter through 2012''.

     SEC. 9. REPORT ON UNITED STATES HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE.

        Section 201(a) of the North Korean Human Rights Act of 
     2004 (22 U.S.C. 7831(a)) is amended, in the matter preceding 
     paragraph (1), by striking ``in each of the 2 years 
     thereafter'' and inserting ``annually thereafter through 
     2012''.

     SEC. 10. ASSISTANCE PROVIDED OUTSIDE OF NORTH KOREA.

        Section 203(c)(1) of the North Korean Human Rights Act of 
     2004 (22 U.S.C. 7833(c)(1)) is amended by striking ``2008'' 
     and inserting ``2012''.

     SEC. 11. ANNUAL REPORTS.

        Section 305(a) of the North Korean Human Rights Act of 
     2004 (22 U.S.C. 7845(a)) is amended--
       (1) in the subsection heading, by inserting ``and Refugee'' 
     before ``Information'';
       (2) in the matter preceding paragraph (1)--
       (A) by striking ``for each of the following 5 years'' and 
     inserting ``through 2012''; and
       (B) by striking ``which shall include--'' and inserting 
     ``which shall include the following:'';
       (3) in paragraph (1)--
       (A) by striking ``the number of aliens'' and inserting 
     ``The number of aliens''; and
       (B) by striking ``; and'' at the end and inserting a 
     period;
       (4) in paragraph (2), by striking ``the number of aliens'' 
     and inserting ``The number of aliens''; and
       (5) by adding at the end the following new paragraphs:
       ``(3) The number of aliens who are nationals or citizens of 
     North Korea who contacted United States personnel overseas 
     and expressed an interest in pursuing resettlement in the 
     United States, irrespective of whether such aliens pursued 
     the resettlement process to its conclusion.
       ``(4) A detailed description of the measures undertaken by 
     the Secretary of State to carry out section 303, including 
     country-specific information with respect to United States 
     efforts to secure the cooperation and permission of the 
     governments of countries in East and Southeast Asia to 
     facilitate United States processing of North Koreans seeking 
     protection as refugees. The information required under this 
     paragraph may be provided in a classified format, if 
     necessary.''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Berman) and the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-
Lehtinen) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California.


                             General Leave

  Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include 
extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this bill and 
yield myself as much time as I may consume.
  I want to first thank our colleague, Mr. Speaker, and our ranking 
member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Ms. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of 
Florida, for introducing this important legislation.
  The human rights situation in North Korea remains one of the bleakest 
on the planet. As we speak, millions of North Koreans live in desperate 
conditions. Political, economic and religious freedoms are nonexistent. 
Many are starving and undernourished and live in fear of arbitrary 
arrests where they know they may be tortured or executed.
  The North Korean government knows that access to information outside 
the country is a threat to the regime's control. So it maintains an 
absolute grip over all legal media, using it to manipulate the 
population into believing that life is no better anywhere else.
  Those who manage to leave the country face further danger, denial of 
rights and threats to their lives. China stubbornly refuses to 
categorize North Koreans who flee horrific living conditions and 
persecution as refugees, instead labeling them economic migrants. This 
disingenuous, semantic trick relieves Beijing of its obligation to 
assist the North Koreans who escape into China in accordance with 
international conventions on refugees to which Beijing is a signatory.
  North Koreans are routinely arrested and abused by the Chinese 
authorities and sent back to North Korea where they are considered 
traitors. Upon return, they are arrested, likely tortured, and 
sometimes killed.
  Earlier this year, Pyongyang reminded the world how it treats those 
who desperately seek a better life by leaving North Korea when it 
executed 13 women and 2 men at the Chinese border. In response to the 
incident, a local North Korean official is reported to have said 
plainly, ``We shot them to send a warning to people.''
  The suffering people of North Korea need assistance, and in 2004, 
Congress passed with overwhelming bipartisan support the North Korea 
Human Rights Act in an effort to focus U.S. attention on their plight. 
The Act provided new resources to assist North Korean refugees, support 
democracy and human rights programs, and improve access to information 
through radio broadcasts and other activities. It also required the 
President to appoint a special envoy on North Korean human rights.
  H.R. 5834, which we're considering today, reauthorizes this vitally 
important legislation. The current bill extends the North Korean Human 
Rights Act through fiscal year 2012, doubles the original funding 
authorization for human rights and democracy programs, and enhances the 
role of the special envoy by making it an ambassadorial rank and 
requiring it be a full-time position.
  I'm proud to be an original cosponsor of this legislation, which I 
strongly support and encourage my colleagues to do the same.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  I'm pleased that we're taking up H.R. 5834, the North Korean Human 
Rights Reauthorization Act that I introduced last month with my dear 
friend and partner, Congressman Berman of California.
  Informed by the experience of the past 4 years, this bill 
reauthorizes and makes minor revisions to the North Korea Human Rights 
Act of 2004. That law captured the strong, bipartisan consensus in 
favor of promoting human rights, transparent humanitarian assistance, 
and refugee protections for the people of North Korea.
  The people of North Korea continue to suffer some of the worst 
conditions imaginable. The totalitarian regime does not permit 
meaningful political freedom, nor religious liberty, and requires cult-
like devotion to the Kim dynasty. It crushes any who dare to dissent.
  The vast North Korean gulag holds an estimated 200,000 men, women and 
children in brutal, sub-human conditions where entire families are 
tortured, abused and worked to death.
  The centrally directed economy that exacerbated the North Korean 
famine of the 1990s, which killed somewhere between 1 and 3 million 
people, continues to threaten the basic welfare of the population.
  The scores of North Korean women and girls who flee into China are 
vulnerable to repeated trafficking, sexual abuse, and exploitation. If 
they are pregnant when repatriated, they are routinely subjected to 
forced abortions by North Korean officials, often by vicious, physical 
beatings.
  Trying to sweep the refugee problem under the rug before the 2008 
Olympics, China has dramatically raised the bounty that it pays for 
North Korean border crossers, and routinely repatriates refugees to 
North Korea where they are sure to face prison, torture, and sometimes 
even execution.
  In an attempt to deter escape, the North Korean regime has been 
stepping up its executions of people involved in border crossings. They 
execute them at public gatherings, where attendance by the local 
population, including children, is required.

                              {time}  1815

  On February 20 of this year, North Korean officials in Onsung County 
made their point by shooting and killing 13 women in front of the 
assembled community. Tragically, these atrocities are common in North 
Korea. We should, therefore, not be surprised when a dictatorship so 
willing to brutalize its own people is proven untrustworthy and 
dangerous in its dealings with the outside world.
  Whether the issue is human rights, missiles or nuclear proliferation, 
the only consistent interest of the current North Korean regime is the 
continuation of the current North Korean regime. It holds no value and 
no regard

[[Page H3749]]

for human life or the welfare of humanity as a whole.
  In an effort to help address the grim situation endured by the North 
Korean people, this bill extends key authorities of the original North 
Korean Human Rights Act for an additional 4 years, such as funding for 
humanitarian assistance to North Korean refugees and trafficking 
victims, efforts to increase freedom of information inside North Korea, 
support for democracy and human rights activities, and reporting 
requirements regarding implementation of this act.
  It also attempts to energize the United States' anemic North Korean 
refugee admissions, and clarifies and strengthens the role of the 
Special Envoy, which Congress intended to be a full-time position 
within the Department of State to champion better policy making on 
North Korean human rights, humanitarian, and refugee issues.
  The United States is home to the largest ethnic Korean community 
outside of the Korean Peninsula, and many of our 2 million Korean-
American constituents have family ties to North Korea. Our Nation also 
has the largest refugee resettlement program in the world by far and 
has resettled approximately 150,000 refugees from around the world 
since the year 2004, when the act became law. But over the past 4 
years, Mr. Speaker, the United States has settled fewer than 50 North 
Koreans, notwithstanding the clear mandate of section 303 of the act 
directing the Secretary of State to facilitate North Korean refugee 
applications. This is an embarrassment, and it is not in keeping with 
the intent of Congress in passing the North Korean Human Rights Act.
  More North Koreans have approached the United States seeking 
resettlement, but many have been deterred or have abandoned their 
pursuit because of extended delays that sometimes continue even after 
they have passed U.S. security screening. A group of increasingly 
desperate North Korean refugees, some of whom have been awaiting U.S. 
resettlement for over 2 years, recently carried out a hunger strike to 
draw attention to their extended limbo. This situation, which continues 
despite the good work from our regional refugee coordinators, requires 
persistent, high-level diplomacy by senior executive branch officials 
to secure permission from more foreign countries to allow us to process 
refugees, and prompt exit visas when those North Koreans are ready to 
leave for the United States.
  I want to thank my good friend, Chairman Berman, and our original 
cosponsors from both sides of the aisle for their commitment to this 
important issue, including my friend, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee, 
whose language on North Korean refugees in China was added to section 3 
of the bill.
  I urge unanimous consent for this measure. And I hope that we can 
work together to get this bill through to the other body and onto the 
President's desk.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield such time as he 
may consume to my friend from California (Mr. Royce), the ranking 
member on the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade.
  Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I rise again in support of this North Korean 
Human Rights Act.
  I think it's very difficult to communicate the conditions of North 
Korea to those who have not seen those who have survived the torture, 
have not seen the malnourished children from North Korea. But 2 weeks 
ago was North Korean Human Rights--North Korean Freedom Week is what we 
call it now, and I had the opportunity to meet with Shin Dong Hyuk, who 
was a North Korean defector. And this particular young man was actually 
born in the prison camp. He was raised in that prison camp. He talked 
about the torture that was done to him when his parents were executed 
for trying to escape. And he told me how, after he escaped from the 
North Korean gulag, he couldn't believe the colors of life outside the 
prison walls because people in North Korea actually had clothes that 
were colorful. That's something he had never seen throughout his life 
living in that gulag.
  And that's some statement about the North Korean prison system 
considering what life itself in North Korea means. It is a total denial 
of political, civil and religious liberties; no dissent or criticism of 
Kim Jong-il. The media, of course, is tightly controlled by the regime. 
There is severe physical abuse dolled out to citizens who violate any 
restriction. There are, of course, food shortages as the regime 
distributes food based on perceived loyalty. And in the ``no go'' 
areas, they don't get the food. The food goes to the ruling elite and 
the military.
  The North Korean Human Rights Act will be an important tool to bring 
about change in North Korea because this bill places an emphasis, among 
other things, on broadcasting into North Korea, setting forth a plan to 
bring 12 hours per day of broadcasting. And the reason I think, Mr. 
Speaker, that those broadcasts are going to be helpful, those expanded 
broadcasts, is because of the role they play in bringing objective news 
and the truth to a closed society.
  Fifty years ago, we had the experience with RFE/RL starting its 
broadcast into the Eastern Bloc, presenting objective news and the 
democratic ideal over the airwaves. And today we have a situation where 
Vaclav Havel and Lech Walesa both say that those radio broadcasts were 
essential to Poland and the Czech Republic's freedom struggle.
  North Korea is the world's most secluded society, but this is 
changing. We do a little bit of broadcasting there now. And now, 30 
percent of those who escape tell us they're listening to the broadcast; 
that includes civil servants and military officers. But there are also 
the cell phones and the DVDs that are making their way over from China. 
And these broadcasts will be key in shattering the state-sponsored lies 
that people are listening to.
  Lastly, let me mention that we are in the midst of Six-Party Talks 
here with North Korea trying to end North Korea's nuclear weapons 
program. A key part of any agreement is verification. There are 
different standards of verification, and I'm concerned that the 
administration will settle, frankly, for a low standard.
  In deciding what's acceptable in a deal, it's useful to understand 
the nature of the other party. And I'd just like to close with this 
thought: A regime that massively abuses its own people, as North Korea 
does, puts no value on paper agreements. Andrei Sakharov made this 
point some years ago about the nature of a regime and the way it treats 
its own citizens, and how, therefore, in dealing with that kind of a 
regime you better get verification. And we'd better understand that.
  Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds.
  The gentleman's ending quote was a very powerful one. And then there 
was a President here who said, that's why, with those kinds of regimes, 
you must verify.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker. I rise today in support of 
H.R. 5834, the North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act of 2008, 
introduced by my colleague Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen. I believe that 
this legislation makes important improvements to the North Korean Human 
Rights Act, passed in 2004.
  Mr. Speaker, between 1994 and 1998, about 2.5 million people died 
during a period of famine in North Korea. During this period, large 
numbers of North Koreans began crossing the border to China in search 
of refuge. At current count, the U.S. State Department estimates some 
30,000-50,000 North Korean refugees currently live in China, while some 
non-governmental organizations put this figure as high as 300,000. Also 
according to the State Department, those North Koreans who are 
repatriated face harsh punishments, ranging from forced labor to 
execution.
  Despite China's obligations under international refugee law, China 
continues to view North Koreans resident in China as economic migrants 
rather than political refugees, and, on this basis, refuses to grant 
U.N. agencies, including the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR), access to 
these populations. Also because of its refusal to recognize North 
Koreans as refugees, China has argued that, under a bilateral 1986 
repatriation agreement with North Korea, it must return all border 
crossers. While at times this bilateral agreement has, in practice,

[[Page H3750]]

been ignored, The government of China is actively locating and 
deporting border-crossers back to North Korea.
  The practice of returning North Koreans who have fled to China is 
particularly worrisome, because, under the North Korean judicial 
system, to leave the country without state permission is considered as 
an act of treason. North Koreans who flee to neighboring nations, 
including China, face a high risk of execution should they ever return.
  Mr. Speaker, North Korea is an extremely closed society, and millions 
of North Koreans live in desperate conditions. The regime is classified 
by Human Rights Watch as being ``among the world's most repressive.'' 
The government controls virtually all aspects of life, and political, 
economic, and religious freedoms are nonexistent. Without guarantees of 
due process and fair trials, citizens live in fear of arbitrary arrest, 
and of torture and execution by the state. The state controls all 
access to information, utilizing their control of the media to 
manipulate the population. Following the famine of 1994-1998, food 
shortages persist, and many residents are to this day suffering from 
hunger.

  Large numbers of North Koreans have fled these conditions, a 
significant percentage of which would likely fit the legal definition 
of refugees. The percentage of these refugees who are women is 
strikingly high, with recent estimates putting the figure potentially 
as high as 75%, an enormous increase from an estimated 20% only four to 
five years ago, though the reasons for this trend are unclear. Female 
refugees throughout the world face specific challenges, and, in China, 
any children born to North Korean women face an extremely uncertain 
future.
  In 2004, Congress passed the North Korea Human Rights Act with 
overwhelming bipartisan support, in an effort to refocus U.S. attention 
on the people of North Korea. This legislation provided humanitarian 
assistance to the North Korean people, as well as improved access to 
information through radio broadcasts and other activities and resources 
to help refugees fleeing the oppressive regime. This legislation also 
required the President to appoint a special envoy on North Korea.
  This legislation that we are considering reauthorizes this important 
bill, extending the North Korean Human Rights Act through fiscal year 
2012. This doubles the original funding authorization for human rights 
and democracy programs enhancing the role of the special envoy 
position, making it a full-time ambassadorial rank post.
  I believe that this bill makes necessary improvements upon the 
original North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004. I am a tireless 
advocate for human rights worldwide as my continual involvement in 
promoting human rights for countries such as Syria, Iran, Sudan, and 
Vietnam is a testament of my dedication towards human rights. I believe 
those fleeing North Korea should be provided with vital support and aid 
by the United States Government.
  Mr. Speaker, this legislation makes an important statement about 
Congress's commitment in addressing violations of human rights, 
wherever they occur. I urge my colleagues to join me in support of this 
legislation in giving these people hope in humanity.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Berman) that the House suspend the rules 
and pass the bill, H.R. 5834, as amended.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds 
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
  Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a 
quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not 
present.
  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.
  The point of no quorum is considered withdrawn.

                          ____________________