•HRES 376 EH 
Repatriation Commission in accordance with Section 3 of 
the Armistice Agreement, but the United Nations Com-
mand noted a significant discrepancy between the Com-
mand’s estimate of POWs and the number given by 
North Korea; 
Whereas the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Of-
fice of the Department of Defense (DPMO) lists more 
than 8,000 members of the United States Armed Forces 
as POWs or missing in action who are unaccounted for 
from the Korean War, including an estimated 5,500 in 
North Korea; 
Whereas many South Korean POWs were never reported as 
POWs during the negotiations, and it is estimated as 
many as 73,000 South Korean POWs were not repatri-
ated; 
Whereas the Joint Field Activities conducted by the United 
States between 1996 and 2005 yielded over 220 sets of 
remains that are still being processed for identification at 
Joint Prisoners of War, Missing in Action Accounting 
Command in Hawaii; 
Whereas the United States recovery operations in North 
Korea were suspended on May 25, 2005, because of dis-
agreements over communications facilities; 
Whereas North Korea has consistently refused to discuss the 
POW issue, and the exact number of South Korean 
POWs who were detained in North Korea after the war 
is unknown, as is the number of those still alive in North 
Korea; 
Whereas approximately 100,000 South Korean civilians (po-
litical leaders, public employees, lawyers, journalists, 
scholars, farmers, etc.) were forcibly abducted by the
•HRES 376 EH 
North Korean Army during the Korean War, but North 
Korea has neither admitted the abductions occurred nor 
accounted for or repatriated the civilians; 
Whereas many young South Korean men were forcibly con-
scripted into the North Korean Army during the Korean 
War; 
Whereas North Korea’s abduction of South Korean civilians 
was carried out under a well-planned scheme to make up 
the shortage of North Korea’s own needed manpower, 
and to communize South Korea; 
Whereas during the Korean War Armistice Commission Con-
ference, the United Nations Command, led by the United 
States, negotiated strongly to seek that South Korean ci-
vilians abducted by North Korea be exchanged for Com-
munist POWs held by the United Nations; 
Whereas North Korea persistently delayed in POW/civilian 
internee negotiations, refusing to acknowledge that they 
had committed a war crime of civilian abduction, with a 
result that in the armistice talks Korean War abductees 
were re-classified ‘‘displaced persons’’ and, consequently, 
not a single person among them has been able to return 
home; 
Whereas the South Korean families of the civilians abducted 
by North Korea six decades ago have endured extreme 
pain and suffering due to the prolonged separation and 
due to the knowledge that North Korea has neither ad-
mitted that the abductions occurred nor accounted for or 
repatriated these civilians; 
Whereas former South Korean POWs and abductees who es-
caped from North Korea have provided valuable and
•HRES 376 EH 
credible information on sightings of American and South 
Korean POWs in concentration camps; 
Whereas tens of thousands of friends and families of the 
POW/MIAs and abductees from the Korean War, includ-
ing the National Alliance of POW/MIA Families, POW/ 
MIA Freedom Fighters, the Coalition of Families of Ko-
rean & Cold War POW/MIAs, the International Korean 
War Memorial Foundation POW Affairs Committee, 
Rolling Thunder, Inc., the Korean War Abductees Family 
Union, the Korea National Red Cross, World Veterans 
Federation, and the National Assembly of Republic of 
Korea, have called for full accounting of the POW/MIAs 
and abductees by North Korea; and 
Whereas July 27, 2011, is the National Korean War Vet-
erans Armistice Day, which is a day of remembrance and 
recognition of Korean War veterans and those persons 
who never returned home from the Korean War: Now, 
therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) recognizes that there are South Korean pris-
oners of war (POWs) and civilian abductees from the 
Korean War who are still alive in North Korea and want 
to be repatriated; 
(2) takes note of the U.S.-North Korean agreement 
of October 20, 2011, on resuming operations to search 
for and recover remains of American POW/MIAs and 
calls upon the United States Government to continue to 
explore the possibility that there could be American 
POW/MIAs still alive inside North Korea;
•HRES 376 EH 
(3) recommends that the United States and South 
Korean Governments jointly investigate reports of 
sightings of American POW/MIAs; 
(4) encourages North Korea to repatriate any 
American and South Korean POWs to their home coun-
tries to reunite with their families under the Inter-
national Humanitarian Law set forth in the Geneva 
Convention relative to the treatment of Prisoners of 
War; 
(5) calls upon North Korea to admit to the abduc-
tion of more than 100,000 South Korean civilians and 
reveal the status of the abductees; and 
(6) calls upon North Korea to agree to the family 
reunions and immediate repatriation of the abductees 
under the International Humanitarian Law set forth in 
the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Ci-
vilian Persons in Time of War. 
Attest: 
Clerk.