North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mrs. KIM of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Moylan for yielding and for his leadership as well as my good friend Representative Manning for moving this bill forward.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of my bipartisan bill, H.R. 3012, the North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act.

This bill updates the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 that was enacted to provide humanitarian aid to North Korean refugees, allow for information access for the North Korean people, and appoint a U.S. Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues.

H.R. 3012 reauthorizes, streamlines, and strengthens oversight of these programs through 2028 and calls for Korean-American families to be reunited with their immediate relatives in North Korea.

We need someone at the State Department dedicated entirely to North Korean human rights issues, especially as Kim Jong Un's brutality against his own people grows. Why?

Because North Korean women and children face the most inhumane treatment in the world, child labor is institutionalized in North Korea, and women are forced into sex trafficking organized by government officials and human traffickers; because an estimated 100,000 North Koreans are subject to forced labor in factories with inhumane conditions in the People's Republic of China; and because torture, forced disappearances, imprisonment, forced sterilization, and religious persecution are tools regularly used to consolidate the North Korean regime's power.

From January 2017 to December 2022, the special envoy position was vacant; that is nearly 6 years. If the position is ever vacant again for more than 180 days, my bill requires the State Department to report on ongoing efforts to fill the position.

The authorization for the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 lapsed in 2022. We must get this legislation signed into law this Congress. We cannot ignore the threat posed by North Korea, and holding the North Korean regime accountable without supporting human rights is a nonstarter.

Failing to reauthorize this landmark human rights initiative sends a signal to Kim Jong Un that the United States will allow human rights abuses in North Korea and around the world to fall on deaf ears.

I thank Representative Ami Bera for co-leading this bill with me, and I thank our chairman of the full committee and his staff for their leadership and commitment to human rights and freedoms for the North Korean people.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 3012.

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