IIB 
108TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4011 
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
JULY 22, 2004 
Received 
SEPTEMBER 7, 2004 
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 
AN ACT 
To promote human rights and freedom in the Democratic 
People’s Republic of Korea, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
HR 4011 RFS 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘North Korean Human 
Rights Act of 2004’’. 
SEC. 2. TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
The table of contents for this Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title. 
Sec. 2. Table of contents. 
Sec. 3. Findings. 
Sec. 4. Purposes. 
Sec. 5. Definitions. 
TITLE I—PROMOTING THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF NORTH KOREANS 
Sec. 101. Sense of Congress regarding negotiations with North Korea. 
Sec. 102. Support for human rights and democracy programs. 
Sec. 103. Radio broadcasting to North Korea. 
Sec. 104. Actions to promote freedom of information. 
Sec. 105. United Nations Commission on Human Rights. 
TITLE II—ASSISTING NORTH KOREANS IN NEED 
Sec. 201. Report on United States humanitarian assistance. 
Sec. 202. Assistance provided inside North Korea. 
Sec. 203. Assistance provided outside of North Korea. 
TITLE III—PROTECTING NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES 
Sec. 301. United States policy toward refugees and defectors. 
Sec. 302. Eligibility for refugee or asylum consideration. 
Sec. 303. Facilitating submission of applications for admission as a refugee. 
Sec. 304. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 
Sec. 305. Annual reports. 
SEC. 3. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) According to the Department of State, the 
Government of North Korea is ‘‘a dictatorship under 
the absolute rule of Kim Jong Il’’ that continues to 
commit numerous, serious human rights abuses. 
(2) The Government of North Korea attempts 
to control all information, artistic expression, aca-
HR 4011 RFS 
demic works, and media activity inside North Korea 
and strictly curtails freedom of speech and access to 
foreign broadcasts. 
(3) The Government of North Korea 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 that approaches the level of a state religion. 
(4) The Government of North Korea divides its 
population into categories, based on perceived loyalty 
to the leadership, which determines access to food, 
employment, higher education, place of residence, 
medical facilities, and other resources. 
(5) According to the Department of State, 
‘‘[t]he [North Korean] Penal Code is [d]raconian, 
stipulating capital punishment and confiscation of 
assets for a wide variety of ‘crimes against the revo-
lution,’ including defection, attempted defection, 
slander of the policies of the Party or State, listen-
ing to foreign broadcasts, writing ‘reactionary’ let-
ters, and possessing reactionary printed matter’’. 
(6) The Government of North Korea executes 
political prisoners, opponents of the regime, some re-
patriated defectors, some members of underground
HR 4011 RFS 
churches, and others, sometimes at public meetings 
attended by workers, students, and schoolchildren. 
(7) The Government of North Korea holds an 
estimated 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. 
(8) According to eyewitness testimony provided 
to the United States Congress by North Korean 
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. 
(9) According to credible reports, including eye-
witness testimony provided to the United States 
Congress, North Korean Government officials pro-
hibit live births in prison camps, and forced abortion 
and the killing of newborn babies are standard pris-
on practices. 
(10) According to the Department of State, 
‘‘[g]enuine religious freedom does not exist in North 
Korea’’ and, according to the United States Com-
mission on International Religious Freedom, ‘‘[t]he
HR 4011 RFS 
North Korean state severely represses public and 
private religious activities’’ with penalties that re-
portedly include arrest, imprisonment, torture, and 
sometimes execution. 
(11) More than 2,000,000 North Koreans are 
estimated to have died of starvation since the early 
1990s because of the failure of the centralized agri-
cultural and public distribution systems operated by 
the Government of North Korea. 
(12) According to a 2002 United Nations-Euro-
pean Union survey, nearly one out of every ten chil-
dren in North Korea suffers from acute malnutrition 
and four out of every ten children in North Korea 
are chronically malnourished. 
(13) Since 1995, the United States has pro-
vided more than 2,000,000 tons of humanitarian 
food assistance to the people of North Korea, pri-
marily through the World Food Program. 
(14) Although United States food assistance 
has undoubtedly saved many North Korean lives and 
there have been minor improvements in transparency 
relating to the distribution of such assistance in 
North Korea, the Government of North Korea con-
tinues to deny the World Food Program forms of ac-
cess necessary to properly monitor the delivery of
HR 4011 RFS 
food aid, including the ability to conduct random site 
visits, the use of native Korean-speaking employees, 
and travel access throughout North Korea. 
(15) The risk of starvation, the threat of perse-
cution, and the lack of freedom and opportunity in 
North Korea have caused large numbers, perhaps 
even hundreds of thousands, of North Koreans to 
flee their homeland, primarily into China. 
(16) North Korean women and girls, particu-
larly those who have fled into China, are at risk of 
being kidnapped, trafficked, and sexually exploited 
inside China, where many are sold as brides or con-
cubines, or forced to work as prostitutes. 
(17) The Governments of China and North 
Korea have been conducting aggressive campaigns to 
locate North Koreans who are in China without per-
mission and to forcibly return them to North Korea, 
where they routinely face torture and imprisonment, 
and sometimes execution. 
(18) Despite China’s obligations as a party to 
the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the 
Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol Relating 
to the Status of Refugees China routinely classifies 
North Koreans seeking asylum in China as mere 
‘‘economic migrants’’ and returns them to North
HR 4011 RFS 
Korea without regard to the serious threat of perse-
cution they face upon their return. 
(19) The Government of China does not provide 
North Koreans whose asylum requests are rejected 
a right to have the rejection reviewed prior to depor-
tation despite its obligations under the 1951 United 
Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refu-
gees and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status 
of Refugees. 
(20) North Koreans who seek asylum while in 
China are routinely imprisoned and tortured, and in 
some cases killed, after they are returned to North 
Korea. 
(21) The Government of China has detained, 
convicted, and imprisoned foreign aid workers at-
tempting to assist North Korean refugees, including 
the Reverend Choi Bong Il, in proceedings that did 
not comply with Chinese law or international stand-
ards. 
(22) In January 2000, North Korean agents in-
side China allegedly abducted the Reverend Kim 
Dong-shik, a United States permanent resident and 
advocate for North Korean refugees, whose condition 
and whereabouts remain unknown.
HR 4011 RFS 
(23) Between 1994 and 2003, South Korea has 
admitted approximately 3,800 North Korean refu-
gees for domestic resettlement, a number small in 
comparison with the total number of North Korean 
escapees, but far greater than the number legally 
admitted by any other country. 
(24) Although the principal responsibility for 
North Korean refugee resettlement naturally falls to 
the Government of South Korea, the United States 
should play a leadership role in focusing inter-
national attention on the plight of these refugees, 
and formulating international solutions to that pro-
found humanitarian dilemma. 
(25) In addition to infringing the rights of its 
own citizens, the Government of North Korea has 
been responsible in years past for the abduction of 
numerous citizens of South Korea and Japan, whose 
condition and whereabouts remain unknown. 
SEC. 4. PURPOSES. 
The purposes of this Act are— 
(1) to promote respect for and protection of 
fundamental human rights in North Korea; 
(2) to promote a more durable humanitarian so-
lution to the plight of North Korean refugees;
HR 4011 RFS 
(3) to promote increased monitoring, access, 
and transparency in the provision of humanitarian 
assistance inside North Korea; 
(4) to promote the free flow of information into 
and out of North Korea; and 
(5) to promote progress toward the peaceful re-
unification of the Korean peninsula under a demo-
cratic system of government. 
SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) APPROPRIATE
CONGRESSIONAL
COMMIT-
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-
mittees’’ means— 
(A) the Committee on International Rela-
tions of the House of Representatives; and 
(B) the Committee on Foreign Relations of 
the Senate. 
(2) CHINA.—The term ‘‘China’’ means the Peo-
ple’s Republic of China. 
(3) HUMANITARIAN
ASSISTANCE.—The term 
‘‘humanitarian assistance’’ means assistance to meet 
humanitarian needs, including needs for food, medi-
cine, medical supplies, clothing, and shelter. 
(4) NORTH KOREA.—The term ‘‘North Korea’’ 
means the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
HR 4011 RFS 
(5) NORTH KOREANS.—The term ‘‘North Kore-
ans’’ means persons who are citizens or nationals of 
North Korea. 
(6) SOUTH KOREA.—The term ‘‘South Korea’’ 
means the Republic of Korea. 
TITLE 
I—PROMOTING 
THE 
HUMAN RIGHTS OF NORTH 
KOREANS 
SEC. 101. SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING NEGOTIATIONS 
WITH NORTH KOREA. 
It is the sense of Congress that the human rights of 
North Koreans should remain a key element in future ne-
gotiations between the United States, North Korea, and 
other concerned parties in Northeast Asia. 
SEC. 102. SUPPORT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY 
PROGRAMS. 
(a) SUPPORT.—The President is authorized to pro-
vide grants to private, nonprofit organizations to support 
programs that promote human rights, democracy, rule of 
law, and the development of a market economy in North 
Korea. Such programs may include appropriate edu-
cational and cultural exchange programs with North Ko-
rean participants, to the extent not otherwise prohibited 
by law. 
(b) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—
HR 4011 RFS 
(1) IN GENERAL.—There are authorized to be 
appropriated to the President $2,000,000 for each of 
the fiscal years 2005 through 2008 to carry out this 
section. 
(2) AVAILABILITY.—Amounts appropriated pur-
suant to the authorization of appropriations under 
paragraph (1) are authorized to remain available 
until expended. 
SEC. 103. RADIO BROADCASTING TO NORTH KOREA. 
(a) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-
gress that the United States should facilitate the 
unhindered dissemination of information in North Korea 
by increasing its support for radio broadcasting to North 
Korea, and that the Broadcasting Board of Governors 
should increase broadcasts to North Korea from current 
levels, with a goal of providing 12-hour-per-day broad-
casting to North Korea, including broadcasts by Radio 
Free Asia and Voice of America. 
(b) REPORT.—Not later than 120 days after the date 
of the enactment of this Act, the Broadcasting Board of 
Governors shall submit to the appropriate congressional 
committees a report that— 
(1) describes the status of current United 
States broadcasting to North Korea; and
HR 4011 RFS 
(2) outlines a plan for increasing such broad-
casts to 12 hours per day, including a detailed de-
scription of the technical and fiscal requirements 
necessary to implement the plan. 
SEC. 104. ACTIONS TO PROMOTE FREEDOM OF INFORMA-
TION. 
(a) ACTIONS.—The President is authorized to take 
such actions as may be necessary to increase the avail-
ability of information inside North Korea by increasing 
the availability of sources of information not controlled by 
the Government of North Korea, including sources such 
as radios capable of receiving broadcasting from outside 
North Korea. 
(b) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—There are authorized to be 
appropriated to the President $2,000,000 for each of 
the fiscal years 2005 through 2008 to carry out sub-
section (a). 
(2) AVAILABILITY.—Amounts appropriated pur-
suant to the authorization of appropriations under 
paragraph (1) are authorized to remain available 
until expended. 
(c) REPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date 
of the enactment of this Act, and in each of the 3 years 
thereafter, the Secretary of State, after consultation with
HR 4011 RFS 
the heads of other appropriate Federal departments and 
agencies, shall submit to the appropriate congressional 
committees a report, in classified form, on actions taken 
pursuant to this section. 
SEC. 105. UNITED NATIONS COMMISSION ON HUMAN 
RIGHTS. 
It is the sense of Congress that the United Nations 
has a significant role to play in promoting and improving 
human rights in North Korea, and that— 
(1) the United Nations Commission on Human 
Rights (UNCHR) has taken positive steps by adopt-
ing Resolution 2003/10 and Resolution 2004/13 on 
the situation of human rights in North Korea, and 
particularly by requesting the appointment of a Spe-
cial Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in 
North Korea; and 
(2) the severe human rights violations within 
North Korea warrant country-specific attention and 
reporting by the United Nations Working Group on 
Arbitrary Detention, the Working Group on En-
forced and Involuntary Disappearances, the Special 
Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary 
Executions, the Special Rapporteur on the Right to 
Food, the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and 
Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and
HR 4011 RFS 
Expression, the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of 
Religion or Belief, and the Special Rapporteur on 
Violence Against Women. 
TITLE II—ASSISTING NORTH 
KOREANS IN NEED 
SEC. 201. REPORT ON UNITED STATES HUMANITARIAN AS-
SISTANCE. 
(a) REPORT.—Not later than 180 days after the date 
of the enactment of this Act, and in each of the 2 years 
thereafter, the Administrator of the United States Agency 
for International Development, in conjunction with the 
Secretary of State, shall submit to the appropriate con-
gressional committees a report that describes— 
(1) all activities to provide humanitarian assist-
ance inside North Korea, and to North Koreans out-
side of North Korea, that receive United States 
funding; 
(2) any improvements in humanitarian trans-
parency, monitoring, and access inside North Korea 
during the previous 1-year period, including progress 
toward meeting the conditions identified in para-
graphs (1) through (4) of section 202(b); and 
(3) specific efforts to secure improved humani-
tarian transparency, monitoring, and access inside 
North Korea made by the United States and United
HR 4011 RFS 
States grantees, including the World Food Program, 
during the previous 1-year period. 
(b) FORM.—The information required by subsection 
(a)(1) may be provided in classified form if necessary. 
SEC. 202. ASSISTANCE PROVIDED INSIDE NORTH KOREA. 
(a) HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE THROUGH NON-
GOVERNMENTAL
AND
INTERNATIONAL
ORGANIZA-
TIONS.—It is the sense of the Congress that— 
(1) at the same time that Congress supports 
the provision of humanitarian assistance to the peo-
ple of North Korea on humanitarian grounds, such 
assistance also should be provided and monitored so 
as to minimize the possibility that such assistance 
could be diverted to political or military use, and to 
maximize the likelihood that it will reach the most 
vulnerable North Koreans; 
(2) significant increases above current levels of 
United States support for humanitarian assistance 
provided inside North Korea should be conditioned 
upon substantial improvements in transparency, 
monitoring, and access to vulnerable populations 
throughout North Korea; and 
(3) the United States should encourage other 
countries that provide food and other humanitarian 
assistance to North Korea to do so through mon-
HR 4011 RFS 
itored, transparent channels, rather than through di-
rect, bilateral transfers to the Government of North 
Korea. 
(b) HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE TO THE GOVERN-
MENT OF NORTH KOREA.—No department, agency, or en-
tity of the United States Government may provide human-
itarian assistance to any department, agency, or entity of 
the Government of North Korea unless such United States 
Government department, agency, or entity certifies in 
writing to the appropriate congressional committees that 
the Government of North Korea has taken steps to ensure 
that— 
(1) such assistance is delivered, distributed, and 
monitored according to internationally recognized 
humanitarian standards; 
(2) such assistance is provided on a needs basis, 
and is not used as a political reward or tool of coer-
cion; 
(3) such assistance reaches the intended bene-
ficiaries, who are informed of the source of the as-
sistance; and 
(4) humanitarian access to all vulnerable 
groups in North Korea is allowed, no matter where 
in the country they may be located.
HR 4011 RFS 
(c) NONHUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE TO THE GOV-
ERNMENT OF NORTH KOREA.—No department, agency, 
or entity of the United States Government may provide 
nonhumanitarian assistance to any department, agency, or 
entity of the Government of North Korea unless such 
United States Government department, agency, or entity 
certifies in writing to the appropriate congressional com-
mittees that the Government of North Korea has made 
substantial progress toward— 
(1) respecting and protecting basic human 
rights, including freedom of religion, of the people of 
North Korea; 
(2) providing for significant family reunification 
between North Koreans and their descendants and 
relatives in the United States; 
(3) fully disclosing all information regarding 
citizens of Japan and the Republic of Korea ab-
ducted by the Government of North Korea; 
(4) allowing such abductees, along with their 
families, complete and genuine freedom to leave 
North Korea and return to the abductees’ original 
home countries; 
(5) significantly reforming its prison and labor 
camp system, and subjecting such reforms to inde-
pendent international monitoring; and
HR 4011 RFS 
(6) decriminalizing political expression and ac-
tivity. 
(d) WAIVER.—The President may waive the prohibi-
tion contained in subsection (b) or (c) if the President de-
termines that it is in the national security interest of the 
United States to do so. Prior to exercising the waiver au-
thority contained in the preceding sentence, the President 
shall transmit to the appropriate congressional committees 
a report that contains the determination of the President 
pursuant to the preceding sentence and a description of 
the assistance to be provided. 
SEC. 203. ASSISTANCE PROVIDED OUTSIDE OF NORTH 
KOREA. 
(a) ASSISTANCE.—The President is authorized to 
provide assistance to support organizations or persons 
that provide humanitarian assistance to North Koreans 
who are outside of North Korea without the permission 
of the Government of North Korea. 
(b) TYPES
OF ASSISTANCE.—Assistance provided 
under subsection (a) should be used to provide— 
(1) humanitarian assistance to North Korean 
refugees, defectors, migrants, and orphans outside of 
North Korea, which may include support for refugee 
camps or temporary settlements; and