North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004

NORTH KOREAN HUMAN RIGHTS ACT OF 2004 -- (House of Representatives - October 04, 2004)

Mr. LEACH. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and concur in the Senate amendment to the bill (H.R. 4011) to promote human rights and freedom in the Democratic Republic of Korea, and for other purposes.

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.

I want to rise and really pay tribute to the leadership of the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Leach) in bringing this legislation not just to the floor today, but to what will be its ultimate enactment into law. I thank the gentleman for his leadership on human rights in North Korea, as well as human rights in the Asian Pacific region. The gentleman has been a stalwart and a real leader, and this is just another important product of that work; and I, and I know many others, are very grateful for his leadership.

This bill is the culmination of a concerted bipartisan effort to act against the unspeakable cruelties occurring under the Kim Jong Il regime. In this regard, I want to commend the efforts as well of the North Korean Freedom Coalition which sponsored, as many Members know, the historic North Korea Freedom Day rally in Washington on April 28, as well as the Korean-American Church Coalition, which built strong support for this bill out in the grass-roots.

Madam Speaker, since the mid-1990s, as many as 2 million North Koreans have died because of failed North Korean economic policies. Despite the loss of nearly 10 percent of the country's population to a man-made famine, Kim Jong Il's regime uses food as a weapon to control its population by rewarding loyalty and withholding food from enemies of the regime. In North Korean society the entire population is divided into three class labels assigned on the basis of loyalty to the regime: "core," "wavering," and "hostile." These labels continue to be used to prioritize access to jobs, region of residence, and entitlement to items distributed through the Public Distribution System.

Humanitarian relief organizations such as the U.N. World Food Program are prohibited by North Korea from distributing food and relief supplies directly to starving victims. Instead, the brutal dictatorship siphons off food aid and gives it to the Communist leadership and to the Army. H.R. 4011 authorizes increased funding for assistance for North Korean refugees, orphans, and trafficking victims outside of North Korea and conditions additional humanitarian assistance inside North Korea upon significant improvements in transparency and monitoring. It is the sense of Congress that future assistance to North Korea should be prohibited unless the government ensures that internationally recognized human rights standards are met and Pyongyang makes substantial progress towards respecting basic human rights such as decriminalizing political expression, providing for family reunification, and reform of its prison camp system.

Madam Speaker, North Korea's human rights abuses, as we now know, are a nightmare of epic proportions. Its regime restricts every basic freedom of its people. It attempts to control all information, brainwashes citizens into following a cult of personality, and threatens international security through the reckless use of its nuclear weapons program. President Bush was clearly correct in labeling North Korea as a nation as part of the "axis of evil."

An estimated 150,000 to 200,000 political prisoners in North Korea are held in camps where they are subjected to torture, forced labor, starvation, and execution. Prisoners in these camps include thousands who attempted to flee the country to avoid starvation, but were returned to North Korea, regrettably, by the Chinese. Eye witnesses from these camps have testified before a hearing that the gentleman from Iowa (Chairman Leach) held on the subcommittee and told us horrific stories of savage torture, forced abortions, and persecution of Christians. Mothers have seen their newborn children killed right in front of their very eyes by North Korean prison guards.

Madam Speaker, H.R. 4011 also provides additional support and protection for the courageous North Koreans who have been able to escape by clarifying that North Koreans are eligible to apply for U.S. refugee and asylum consideration, and designating North Koreans who have been persecuted or mistreated by the North Koreans as a priority 2 group of special humanitarian concern to the United States. H.R. 4011 also underscores China's obligation to provide UNHCR with access to North Koreans in China and urges the UNHCR to assert its right to arbitration with China in an effort to secure access to North Koreans in China.

This is a very, very important human rights bill. Again, I want to commend the chairman for his extraordinary leadership in bringing it to the body today.

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