[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 14]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 19781-19782]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    PROTECTING NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 13, 2017

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I held a hearing on 
the current situation facing North Korean asylum seekers and assessed 
both China's obligation to protect refugees and the effectiveness of 
global efforts to stop what the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Human 
Rights in North Korea called crimes against humanity experienced by 
refugees.
  At a recent House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, North Korean 
defector Ambassador Thae Yong-ho testified about the strategic value of 
both disseminating information into North Korea and the protection of 
North Korean refugees in China.
  Drawing on an analogy about the fall of the Berlin Wall, Ambassador 
Thae claimed that there may be a similar result if China stopped 
repatriations of refugees and the U.S. and the international community 
expanded ``soft power'' news and information flows into North Korea.
  As the Congress continues to look at ways to best apply maximum 
diplomatic and financial press on the regime of Kim Jong-un, this 
hearing explored the strategic relevance of further pressing the 
Chinese government to protect North Korean refugees and evaluate the 
impact of surging outside information into North Korea.
  Amid escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula, we cannot forget 
those suffering under the North Korean regime and those North Korean 
refugees who are in China
  North Korean asylum seekers are at imminent risk of repatriation, 
torture, sexual violence, forced abortions, hard labor and even 
execution. China's repatriation of North Koreans is a stark violation 
of both the spirit and the letter of the 1951 Refugee Convention and 
1967 Protocol to which China has acceded.
  The Chinese government has a lot to answer for. It is no wonder that 
the UN Commission on Inquiry for North Korea Human Rights concluded 
that the Government of the People's Republic of China is aiding and 
abetting in crimes against humanity by forcibly repatriating North 
Korean refugees.
  As many as 90 percent of North Korean women refugees in China fall 
prey to traffickers who sell the refugees into sexual slavery or forced 
marriages.
  Labor trafficking is also pervasive The government of North Korea and 
the government and businesses in China, Russia, and elsewhere in the 
world, profit from the trafficking of North Korean laborers.
  In recent months, Chinese authorities reportedly deported hundreds of 
South Korean missionaries and NGO workers who have provided crucial 
help to the North Korean refugees in China.
  The international community--especially the United Nations, the Trump 
Administration and the U.S. Congress--must insist that China honor its 
treaty obligations and end its egregious practice of systematic 
repatriation of North Korean refugees.
  Chinese officials and businesses, complicit in repatriation of North 
Korean refugees or those who profit from the labor trafficking should 
be held accountable.
  The Congress has given the Administration the sanction tools that if 
used would send the right message--whether through the North Korea 
Sanctions Enforcement Act, the Global Magnitsky Act, or those sanctions 
attached to China's Tier 3 designation for trafficking in persons.
  All should be used strategically and swiftly to send a clear message. 
For too long the world has tolerated China's failures to protect 
refugees. Those complicit in the repatriations of refugees and those 
who profit from the trafficking of North Koreans will be held 
accountable.
  The ending of repatriations should be a bellwether for judging 
China's willingness to curtail Kim Jong-un' s nuclear ambitions.
  In addition to the protection of North Korea refugees, this hearing 
also assessed global efforts to surge news and information into North 
Korea.
  Expansion of existing efforts to disseminate information into North 
Korea is critically important if for nothing else than to tarnish and 
undermine the Kim family's cult of personality.
  The Kim family cult must be taken seriously as a national security 
threat and a barometer of Kim Jong-un's power. This cult of 
personality--sometimes called Juche--has inspired devotion from the 
North Korean people because of the cradle to grave propaganda they 
endure.
  We must undermine the Kim family cult and the propaganda that grants 
Kim Jong-un almost god-like status. This status has allowed three 
generations of the Kim family to starve and abuse the North Korean 
people and divert scarce resources to the military and nuclear 
programs.
  We must have an information surge into North Korea. Human rights 
groups are smuggling DVDs and USB sticks with video about the Kim 
family's sins into North Korea right now. Balloons are launched across 
the border with promises of a better life in South Korea. Radio 
programs broadcast daily messages and news, urging North Korea's 
``elite'' to defect and turn against Kim Jong-un.

[[Page 19782]]

  We know some of these efforts are having effect. We saw several high-
level defections of diplomats, military officers, and the families of 
North Korea's elites in the last year. The number of asylum-seekers, 
depressed for several years by upgraded security efforts in China, has 
again begun to rise.
  Efforts to get information into North Korea must be expanded 
dramatically. Washington should be leading this covert effort, working 
primarily with North Korea defectors groups in South Korea and with 
other human rights organizations.
  The North Korean defector groups should be front and center in this 
effort--they know North Korea and they know the minds of its people. 
They know what information is needed to permanently tarnish the Kim 
family cult and what will motivate military leaders to defect.
  Yesterday's hearing took place amid growing tensions on the Korean 
Peninsula. We must seek all viable options to deal with and resolve the 
North Korean issue, not only in military/diplomatic terms, but also in 
terms of human rights and freedom of the North Korean people.
  I welcome and thank all of our witnesses. I valued hearing their 
observations and insights.

                          ____________________