H. Res. 109

In the House of Representatives, U.S.,

March 18, 2003.

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, assembly, 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 indoctrina-
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tion 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;

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;
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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’’;

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;
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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

Resolved, That the House of Representatives—

(1) urges the Secretary of State to support efforts

to draft, introduce, and pass a resolution addressing

human rights abuses in North Korea at the 59th session

the United Nations Commission on Human Rights;

(2) urges all members of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to support a resolution addressing human rights abuses in North Korea at the

59th session of the United Nations Commission on

Human Rights; and

(3) calls on the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to respect and protect the

human rights of its citizens, such as those recognized in

the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Attest:

Clerk.