IV 

108TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 109

Urging passage of a resolution addressing human rights abuses in North 

Korea at the 59th session of the United Nations Commission on Human 

Rights, and calling on the Government of North Korea to respect and 

protect the human rights of its citizens. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 27, 2003

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. WOLF, Mr. PITTS, Mr. LINCOLN

DIAZ-BALART of Florida, Mr. CHABOT, Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN, Mr. ROHRABACHER, Mr. BEREUTER, Mr. HOEFFEL, Mr. WEXLER, Mr. MARKEY, 

Ms. BORDALLO, Mr. LEACH, Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA, Mr. GALLEGLY, and 

Mr. WAMP) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 

Committee on International Relations 

RESOLUTION

Urging passage of a resolution addressing human rights 

abuses in North Korea at the 59th session of the United 

Nations Commission on Human Rights, and calling on 

the Government of North Korea to respect and protect 

the human rights of its citizens.

Whereas the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (in this 

preamble referred to as ‘‘North Korea’’) is, in the words 

of the United States Department of State, ‘‘a dictatorship under the absolute rule of the Korean Workers’ 

Party’’ that ‘‘prohibits freedom of speech, the press, as-
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sembly, and association . . . [and] restricts freedom of religion, citizens’ movements, and worker rights’’; 

Whereas according to the State Department, ‘‘[t]he [North 

Korean] Penal Code is Draconian, stipulating capital 

punishment and confiscation of assets for a wide variety 

of ‘crimes against the revolution,’ including defection, attempted defection, slander of the policies of the party or 

State, listening to foreign broadcasts, writing ‘reactionary’ letters, and possessing reactionary printed matter’’; 

Whereas, as noted in the State Department Country Reports 

on Human Rights Practices, the North Korean regime 

executes political prisoners, opponents of the regime, 

some repatriated defectors, some members of underground churches, and others, sometimes at public meetings attended by workers, students, and school children; 

Whereas the North Korean regime subjects all its citizens to 

systematic, intensive political and ideological indoctrination in support of the cult of personality glorifying Kim 

Jong Il and the late Kim Il Sung which, in the words of 

the State Department, ‘‘approaches the level of a state 

religion’’; 

Whereas the North Korean regime divides its population into 

categories, based on perceived loyalty to the Party and 

the leadership, which determine access to employment, 

higher education, place of residence, medical facilities, 

and other resources; 

Whereas the North Korean regime attempts to control all information, artistic expression, and academic works inside 

North Korea and strictly curtails freedom of speech; 
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Whereas the Government of North Korea holds an estimated 

150,000 to 200,000 political prisoners in camps that its 

State Security Agency manages through the use of forced 

labor, beatings, torture, and executions, and in which 

many prisoners also die from disease, starvation, and exposure; 

Whereas according to eyewitness testimony provided to the 

Committee on International Relations of the House of 

Representatives by camp survivors, camp inmates have 

been used as sources of slave labor for the production of 

export goods, as targets for martial arts practice, and as 

experimental victims in the testing of chemical and biological poisons; 

Whereas according to eyewitness testimony provided to the 

Committee on International Relations by a camp survivor, female camp prisoners are not permitted to have 

children and their newborn babies are routinely and brutally killed by camp authorities; 

Whereas according to the State Department ‘‘[g]enuine religious freedom does not exist’’ in North Korea and, in the 

words of the United States Commission on International 

Religious Freedom, ‘‘[t]he North Korean state severely 

represses public and private religious activities’’; 

Whereas the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has highlighted ‘‘reports that [North Korean] officials have arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and 

sometimes executed North Korean citizens who were 

found to have ties with overseas Christian evangelical 

groups operating across the border in China, as well as 

those who engaged in such unauthorized religious activities as public religious expression and persuasion’’; 
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•HRES 109 IH 

Whereas according to eyewitness testimony provided to the 

Committee on International Relations in May 2002, a 

North Korean prison camp survivor witnessed a group of 

Christian prisoners being tortured to death in 1990 for 

refusing to repudiate their faith; 

Whereas more than 1,000,000 North Koreans are estimated 

to have died of starvation since 1995 because of the failure of the centralized agricultural system operated by the 

Government of North Korea; 

Whereas the risk of starvation and the threat of persecution 

in North Korea have caused many thousands of North 

Koreans to flee their homeland, primarily into the People’s Republic of China; 

Whereas the Governments of the People’s Republic of China 

and North Korea have been conducting aggressive campaigns to locate North Koreans who are in the People’s 

Republic of China without permission and to forcibly return them to North Korea; 

Whereas North Koreans who seek asylum while in the People’s Republic of China are routinely imprisoned and tortured, and in some cases killed, after they are returned 

to North Korea; and 

Whereas the 59th session of the United Nations Commission 

on Human Rights is scheduled to be held in Geneva, 

Switzerland from March 17 to April 25, 2003: Now, 

therefore, be it

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives—

2 (1) urges the Secretary of State to draft, intro3 duce, and work toward the passage of a resolution 

4 addressing human rights abuses in North Korea at 
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1 the 59th session of the United Nations Commission 

2 on Human Rights; and 

3 (2) calls on the Government of the Democratic 

4 People’s Republic of Korea to respect and protect 

5 the human rights of its citizens, such as those recog6 nized in the Universal Declaration of Human 

7 Rights.

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