IIB 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. CON. RES. 234 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

OCTOBER 30, 2007 

Received and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 

Calling on the Government of the People’s Republic of China 

to respect the human rights of refugees from North Korea. 

Whereas the Government of North Korea is a dictatorial regime that commits gross human rights violations against 

the North Korean people; 

Whereas the Government of North Korea attempts to exert 

absolute control over the lives of North Koreans through 

the use of deplorable systems of punishment and torture 

and by restricting the flow of information; 


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HCON 234 RFS 

Whereas the Government of North Korea engages in the systematic torture, unlawful detainment, and mass murder 

of tens of thousands of political prisoners, defectors, and 

refugees, employing the world’s most brutal concentration 

camp system; 

Whereas the lack of freedom, government persecution, and 

policies of selective starvation have driven hundreds of 

thousands of North Koreans to northeast China, fleeing 

for their lives from prison camps or political persecution; 

Whereas the Government of the People’s Republic of China 

forcibly repatriates North Korean refugees and imprisons 

foreign aid workers who try to assist North Korean refugees inside China; 

Whereas to encourage these repatriation efforts, Chinese central government authorities assign local public security 

bureaus in northeastern China a target number of North 

Koreans that they must detain in order to receive favorable work evaluations; 

Whereas the refugees returned to North Korea by the Government of the People’s Republic of China face imprisonment, brutal persecution, or execution; 

Whereas up to 90 percent of North Korean women refugees 

fall prey to traffickers in China who sell the refugees into 

sexual slavery; 

Whereas the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, done at Geneva on July 28, 1951 (189 

UNTS 150), as modified by the Protocol relating to the 

Status of Refugees, done at New York on January 31, 

1967 (606 UNTS 267), defines a refugee as a person 

who, ‘‘owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for 

reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a 


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particular social group or political opinion, is outside the 

country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such 

fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that 

country’’; 

Whereas the Government of the People’s Republic of China 

violates its obligations under the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the Protocol 

relating to the Status of Refugees by impeding access to 

the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 

(UNHCR) and continually classifying North Korean refugees as ‘‘economic migrants’’, denying them asylum and 

forcibly returning them to North Korea without the review to which they are entitled; 

Whereas the UNHCR fails to robustly press the Government 

of the People’s Republic of China to grant the UNHCR 

access to North Korean refugees and has failed in initiate 

a binding arbitration proceeding against the Government 

of the People’s Republic of China pursuant to the terms 

of Article XIV of the Agreement on Upgrading of the 

UNHCR Mission in the People’s Republic of China to the 

UNHCR Branch Office in the People’s Republic of 

China, done at Geneva on December 1, 1995, governing 

refugee access and the refugee designation process; 

Whereas the UNHCR’s failure to bring such an arbitration 

proceeding was determined by the United States Congress in the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 

(Public Law 108–333; 22 U.S.C. 7801 et seq.) to constitute a ‘‘a significant abdication by the UNHCR of one 

of its core responsibilities’’; 

Whereas the failure of the People’s Republic of China to 

abide by its treaty obligations toward the United Nations 

is a critical means by which the Government of North 


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Korea is allowed to subject the people of North Korea to 

persecution and effectively imprison them within its borders; 

Whereas Special Envoy for Human Rights in North Korea 

Jay Lefkowitz testified before the House Foreign Affairs 

Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and the Global Environment on March 1, 2007, that ‘‘the fact that the Government of China is not honoring its international commitments, is not providing genuine access as it is required to the U.N. High Commissioner on Human 

Rights, I think is really the single most significant issue 

we have outside of the North Korean Government’s own 

emigration policies that is a barrier now to the free movement of people in that region’’; 

Whereas the International Parliamentarians Coalition for 

North Korean Refugees’ Human Rights, a coalition of 

parliamentarians from across the globe, met in Seoul, 

South Korea, on August 29, 2007, and called on the 

international community to increase its efforts to protect 

North Korean refugees; and 

Whereas the Korean-American community, acting through 

various religious and civic organizations, including the 

‘‘Let My People Go Campaign’’, has worked to bring 

awareness to the plight of the hundreds of thousands 

North Korean refugees living in China: Now, therefore, 

be it 

1 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 

2 concurring), That Congress— 

3 (1) strongly encourages the Government of the 

4 People’s Republic of China to honor its obligations 

5 under the United Nations Convention relating to the 


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1 Status of Refugees, done at Geneva on July 28, 

2 1951 (189 UNTS 150), as modified by the Protocol 

3 relating to the Status of Refugees, done at New 

4 York on January 31, 1967 (606 UNTS 267), by— 

5 (A) halting the forced repatriation of 

6 North Koreans who face a well-founded fear of 

7 persecution if they are returned to North 

8 Korea; 

9 (B) making genuine efforts to identify and 

10 protect the refugees among the North Korean 

11 migrants encountered by Chinese authorities, 

12 including providing refugees with a reasonable 

13 opportunity to request asylum; and 

14 (C) granting the United Nations High 

15 Commissioner for Refugees unfettered access to 

16 such refugees to determine their status and the 

17 degree of assistance to which they are entitled; 

18 and 


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1 (2) recognizes the efforts of the Korean-Amer2 ican community for bringing attention to the plight 

3 of North Korean refugees. 

Passed the House of Representatives October 29, 

2007. 

Attest: LORRAINE C. MILLER, 

Clerk. 


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