[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 151 (Tuesday, September 23, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H8659-H8661]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         NORTH KOREAN HUMAN RIGHTS REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2008

  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and 
concur in the Senate amendments to 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.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the Senate amendments is as follows:

       Senate amendments:
       On page 3, beginning on line 4, strike the comma and all 
     that follows to the end period and insert the following: 
     ``and has increased the bounty paid for turning in North 
     Korean refugees''.
       On page 3, beginning on line 11, strike ``, including'' and 
     all that follows through ``killings'' on line 17.
       On page 4, line 4, strike ``On February'', and insert the 
     following: ``Since the passage of the North Korean Human 
     Rights Act, Congress has on several occasions expressed 
     interest in the status of North Korean refugees, and on 
     February''.
       On page 4, line 19, strike ``at overseas posts''.
       On page 5, line 10, after ``should'', insert ``continue 
     to''.
       On page 6, line 3, strike ``rights, humanitarian, and 
     refugee issues,'' and insert the following: ``rights and 
     humanitarian issues, and to participate in policy planning 
     and implementation with respect to refugee issues,''.
       On page 7, line 20, strike ``$4,000,000'' and insert 
     ``$2,000,000''.
       On page 9 line 13, after ``including'', insert the 
     following: ``, in coordination with the Bureau of Population, 
     Refugees, and Migration,''.
       On page 9, line 21, strike ``coordinate'' and insert 
     ``participate in the formulation and''.
       On page 11, line 13, strike ``paragraphs'' and insert 
     ``paragraph''.
       On page 11, strike line 14 and all that follows through 
     line 19.
       On page 12, lines 3 and 4, strike ``may be provided in a 
     classified format, if necessary'' and insert the following: 
     ``shall be provided in unclassified form, with a classified 
     annex, if necessary''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Scott) and the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Georgia.
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this 
resolution, and I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

[[Page H8660]]

  I wanted to first thank our colleague and the ranking member of the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs, Ms. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, who 
introduced this important legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, the human rights situation in North Korea remains one of 
the bleakest on the planet. This is an extraordinarily important piece 
of legislation which speaks to some extraordinary abuses of human 
rights in North Korea.
  As we speak, millions of North Koreans live in desperate conditions; 
political, economic, and religious freedoms are nonexistent, and many 
are starving and undernourished and live in fear of arbitrary arrests 
when 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, and 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 on the 
planet.
  Those who manage to leave the country in North Korea face further 
danger. They face 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, they label them as 
``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. They're likely tortured, and 
sometimes, Mr. Speaker, they are killed.
  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. 
This 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 is also 
required that the President appoint a special envoy on North Korean 
human rights.
  Our bill, H.R. 5834, reauthorizes this vitally important legislation. 
The current bill extends the North Korean Human Rights Act through 
fiscal year 2012 and enhances the role of the special envoy by making 
it an ambassadorial rank and requiring it be a full-time position.
  H.R. 5834 was passed by the House on May 15 of this year, and the 
Senate made minor amendments to the bill on September 22.
  Mr. Speaker, the North Korean Human Rights Act has been instrumental 
in ensuring the issue of human rights for North Koreans remains a key 
priority of U.S. policy toward North Korea. I strongly support this 
legislation. It is badly needed. And I encourage my colleagues to do 
the same.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield myself such time 
as I may consume.
  I rise in strong support, also, of H.R. 5834, the North Korean Human 
Rights Reauthorization Act, which I introduced with my good friend from 
California, the chairman of our committee, Howard Berman, earlier this 
Congress. We passed this bill, Mr. Speaker, 4 months ago in a strong 
demonstration of this body's continued commitment to human rights, to 
transparent humanitarian assistance, and to refugee protection for the 
people of North Korea.
  On Monday, the Senate followed our bipartisan lead and unanimously 
supported this bill with minor modifications, which is why we are 
taking it up again today.
  I would like to thank Chairman Biden and Ranking Member Lugar and 
their staffs for their input and their assistance. Special thanks to my 
friend, Senator Sam Brownback, for his long-standing leadership on the 
issues of North Korea human rights, and his efforts were instrumental 
in securing a successful outcome in the Senate.

                              {time}  1915

  During our initial House floor debate in May, Mr. Speaker, we 
discussed the dire traumas that the North Korean regime has perpetrated 
against its own people during the past half century.
  Rather than recount the horrific circumstances which compelled me to 
draft this bill, I would instead like to focus today on some of the 
important clarifications contained in this legislation.
  Over the past 4 years, in oversight hearings, in meetings and 
official letters, Members have expressed their dissatisfaction with the 
executive branch implementation of the North Korean Human Rights Act of 
2004.
  In the words of the report of the Foreign Affairs Committee on this 
bill, it has been ``too slow and too weak,'' and the purposes set forth 
in section 4 of the original act remain largely unrealized.
  After enactment, the administration delayed appointment of the 
special envoy for nearly 8 months, 4 months after the envoy was 
required to file a report to Congress under the act, a deadline that 
was ignored. Since then, the special envoy has never filled that 
position on more than a part-time basis.
  Mr. Speaker, House Members were genuinely surprised by that limited 
time commitment, which did not track with the broad duties and 
responsibilities assigned to the envoy and the ambitious purposes of 
that law. Congress has also repeatedly noted our disappointment with 
the inadequate pace of the North Korean refugee admissions during the 
past 4 years.
  Even though title 3 of the act clarified North Korean eligibility for 
U.S. resettlement and required the Secretary of State to facilitate the 
submission of those refugee applications, fewer than 70 of the more 
than 150,000 refugees resettled here since then have been North 
Koreans.
  Many North Koreans have been deterred or have abandoned their claims 
for U.S. resettlement because of the extremely long wait caused by the 
resistance and the delay of foreign governments, as well as the slow 
pace of our own screening.
  One poignant case, Mr. Speaker, followed by our committee staff 
involved the family of three North Koreans, a husband, a wife, and 
their young son. That family lived a vulnerable and depressing 
existence in Southeast Asia, confined largely to a single room for more 
than 2 years while awaiting completion of the U.S. process. Even though 
the mother was battling cancer, they persisted in the resettlement 
process because she believed that life in America would provide the 
most freedom and opportunity for her son.
  This summer, after a personal appeal by Chairman Berman and me, they 
were finally allowed to leave that Third Country and travel halfway 
around the world to their new home in Virginia. After years of heroic 
patience, the mother lived just long enough to deliver her son safely 
to this land of new promise. She died less than 2 weeks after their 
arrival.
  The United States must intensify our diplomacy with foreign nations 
on these issues, Mr. Speaker, and work more cooperatively with our ally 
South Korea, which admirably continues to bear the overwhelming bulk of 
the refugee resettlement numbers.
  To help address these deficiencies, H.R. 5834 clarifies and 
strengthens the role of the special envoy. It makes the special envoy 
for North Korean human rights an ambassadorial-rank position to ensure 
that the envoy has ample stature to pursue his or her duties with 
foreign governments, as well as to promote the priorities of the act 
within the Department of State.
  This bill makes clear that the envoy position is to be ``a full-time 
position . . . as intended by the North Korean Human Rights Act of 
2004.''
  When combined with the requirement of the original act that the envoy 
``be a person of recognized distinction in the field of human rights,'' 
the bill before us eliminates any misconception that the position may 
be a part-time undertaking, or a second hat worn by a Foreign Service 
officer with other, more important, supposedly, duties.
  This bill also makes clear that the envoy's mandated concerns include 
the protection of North Korean refugees.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, the bill inserts a new paragraph at the very 
top of the special envoy's statutory duties that confirms the envoy's 
role in the formulation and implementation of the full

[[Page H8661]]

range of activities under the North Korean Human Rights Act, which 
includes, in the words of the act: ``Promoting the Human Rights of 
North Koreans''; ``Assisting North Koreans in Need''; and ``Protecting 
North Korean Refugees.''
  The people of North Korea face some of the most severe repression on 
the planet.
  I am proud of the work that our Congress began 4 years ago to help 
their plight, and I thank my friend Chairman Berman, our bipartisan 
cosponsors, and the numerous nongovernmental organizations who have 
worked with us to extend and improve the North Korean Human Rights Act.
  I urge unanimous support for this measure.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of our time.


                             General Leave

  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their 
remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 5834.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Georgia?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. And a final comment, Mr. Speaker. House 
Resolution 5834 indeed gives us an ambassador rank for human rights in 
North Korea. This is extraordinarily important, and this is not just 
right and needed for the people of North Korea. It's needed and it's 
right for all freedom-loving people on this planet, for us to move 
forthrightly and to be able to finally make this a critical, key part 
of our foreign policy.
  Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I reserve the balance of 
my time.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, to help explain the intent behind the 
full-time special envoy requirement in this bill, I would like to 
insert into the Record a brief excerpt from the Background and Purpose 
section of House Report 110-628 submitted to the House by Chairman 
Berman.

         North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act of 2008


               BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE FOR THE LEGISLATION

       Executive Branch implementation of the refugee provisions 
     of the 2004 Act has been too slow and too weak. On February 
     21, 2006, a bipartisan group of 9 senior House Members and 
     Senators--including the then-Chairman and Ranking Member of 
     the Committee on International Relations and the Chairman and 
     Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific--
     wrote the Secretary of State `to express our deep concern for 
     the lack of progress in funding and implementing the key 
     provisions of the North Korean Human Rights Act.' Foremost 
     among their concerns, they noted that, `despite the fact that 
     the Act calls for the Department of State to facilitate the 
     submission of North Korean refugee applications, not one 
     North Korean has been offered asylum or refugee status in the 
     16 months since the unanimous passage of the legislation.' 
     The first North Korean refugees did not arrive in the United 
     States until 3 months later, in May 2006.
       North Koreans who have requested resettlement in the United 
     States as refugees have also faced extended delays, in some 
     cases longer than 2 years, while residing in circumstances 
     that are frequently unsafe, unhealthy, and insecure. Delays 
     sometimes continue even after the refugees have passed U.S. 
     assessment and security screening, due to foot-dragging in 
     the issuance of exit visas by the governments of the 
     countries where they are located. These delays have been the 
     source of considerable discouragement, frustration, and 
     anxiety among North Korean refugees. Just last month a group 
     of North Koreans awaiting U.S. resettlement in Thailand 
     reportedly conducted a hunger strike in an attempt to obtain 
     information about the status of their cases.
       In the intervening 3\1/2\ years since the 2004 Act became 
     law, the United States has resettled fewer than 50 North 
     Korean refugees. This does not constitute the `credible 
     number of North Korean refugees [to be accepted] for domestic 
     resettlement' contemplated by House Report 108-478.
       During that same time frame, the United States, which has 
     the largest refugee resettlement program in the world by far, 
     has resettled approximately 150,000 other refugees from 
     around the world. The United States is also home to the 
     largest ethnic Korean community outside of the Korean 
     peninsular region, and many of the 2-million-strong Korean-
     American community have family ties to North Korea. During 
     the same period, South Korea has resettled approximately 
     6,000 North Koreans.
       Remedying this situation will require more persistent U.S. 
     diplomacy at more senior levels. At present, the number of 
     foreign governments who allow the United States to process 
     North Koreans in their countries for resettlement is 
     extremely limited. Having a greater number of countries in 
     which the United States can screen and process North Korean 
     refugees for domestic resettlement will reduce the burdens 
     that such cooperation may pose to each individual country. 
     The United States must make it clear that this is a 
     humanitarian and foreign policy priority, and demonstrate a 
     willingness to use the refugee assistance funds (authorized 
     in section 203 of the 2004 Act and section 10 of the 
     Reauthorization Act) to help mitigate the costs that such 
     cooperation might impose on countries that agree to allow 
     U.S. resettlement processing.
       To further the purposes of the 2004 Act, it is also 
     important to clarify and strengthen the role of the Special 
     Envoy. Regrettably, the President did not appoint a Special 
     Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues until August 19, 
     2005, more than 4 months after the Special Envoy was required 
     to report to Congress under the 2004 Act. The Special Envoy 
     appointed by the President has filled that position on a 
     part-time basis only, and has continued to live and pursue a 
     career outside of Washington, D.C. Looking ahead to the 
     possibility of a Special Envoy who may not enjoy the same 
     preexisting rapport with and access to the President, it is 
     important to ensure that any successor has adequate stature 
     and presence within the Department of State. An active 
     presence at Main State is necessary to ensure that the 
     concerns at the heart of the Special Envoy's mandate are 
     adequately represented in the decision-making processes of 
     the State Department's regional and functional bureaus, 
     especially the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs (EAP) 
     and the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM).

  I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of 
our time, Mr. Speaker.
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Scott) that the House suspend the rules and 
concur in the Senate amendments to the bill, H.R. 5834.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the Senate amendments were concurred in.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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