IV 
118TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 1080 
Expressing the sense of Congress that coordinated action must be taken 
by the United States Government and partner countries to address the 
humanitarian and human rights crises facing North Koreans in the 
People’s Republic of China, including forced labor, arbitrary detention, 
human trafficking, and the forcible repatriation from China. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 13, 2024 
Mrs. STEEL (for herself, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Mr. GOTTHEIMER, Mrs. 
KIM of California, and Mr. D’ESPOSITO) submitted the following resolu-
tion; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in ad-
dition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be subse-
quently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of Congress that coordinated action 
must be taken by the United States Government and 
partner countries to address the humanitarian and 
human rights crises facing North Koreans in the People’s 
Republic of China, including forced labor, arbitrary de-
tention, human trafficking, and the forcible repatriation 
from China. 
Whereas North Korean escapees and asylum seekers in 
China, the vast majority of whom are women, are again 
being forcibly returned to the Democratic People’s Re-
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•HRES 1080 IH 
public of Korea (North Korea) with the opening up of the 
Sino-North Korean border in 2023; 
Whereas the Governments of China and North Korea are now 
aggressively seeking to locate and detain North Koreans 
who are in China and to forcibly return them to North 
Korea, including by offering bounties for information on 
North Koreans living in China; 
Whereas, according to the 18 United Nations Special Experts 
on human rights in an October 2023 statement urging 
the People’s Republic of China to honor its obligations 
under international law, ‘‘there are long-standing and 
credible reports to believe that North Korea escapees 
forced returned to [North Korea] would be subjected to 
torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and pun-
ishment and other serious human rights violations.’’; 
Whereas the 2014 Commission on Inquiry on Human Rights 
North Korea and the United Nations High Commissioner 
of Human Rights condemned the long-standing, system-
atic and gross violations of human rights occurring in 
North Korea, including those that may amount to crimes 
against humanity; 
Whereas, according to the 2014 United Nations Commission 
of Inquiry on Human Rights in North Korea report, the 
Government of North Korea holds up to 120,000 political 
prisoners in camps managed by its State Security Agency 
through the use of forced labor, beatings, torture, and 
executions. Many prisoners also die from disease, starva-
tion, and exposure; 
Whereas the Government of North Korea imposes punish-
ments, including execution, for crimes such as attempted 
defection, slander of the Korean Workers Party, listening 
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•HRES 1080 IH 
to foreign broadcasts, possessing printed matter that is 
considered reactionary by the Korean Workers Party, and 
holding prohibited religious beliefs; 
Whereas the combination of political, social, and religious 
persecution and acute food insecurity in North Korea 
cause many North Koreans to flee to China, a trend that 
has occurred for over 30 years now; 
Whereas an estimated 80 percent of North Korean asylum 
seekers are women and girls who are particularly vulner-
able to trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation, 
forced labor, or forced marriages and detention in China 
and if forcibly returned to North Korea they may face 
forced abortions, rape, and other forms of violence in de-
tention; 
Whereas, according to the State Department’s latest Traf-
ficking in Persons Report, approximately 30,000 children 
in China who were born to North Korean mothers and 
Chinese fathers are unregistered, making them stateless 
and ineligible for medical care, schooling, and other gov-
ernment support in the People’s Republic of China; 
Whereas in order to generate income for the Government, in-
cluding its illicit nuclear weapons program, North Kore-
ans are sent abroad, most often to China and Russia, to 
work under conditions that reportedly amount to forced 
labor, including in seafood process factories in Liaoning 
Province of China; 
Whereas seafood processed by North Koreans in Liaoning 
Province of China enter the United States market, in-
cluding baby clams, squid, and haddock according to re-
ports published by the Outlaw Ocean Project; 
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•HRES 1080 IH 
Whereas China and Russia violate with impunity United Na-
tions Security Council resolution 2397 (para. 8) which 
prohibits countries from employing North Korean work-
ers after December 2019; 
Whereas any good made by North Korean labor, wholly or in 
part, is prohibited from entry into the United States 
market by section 321 of the Countering America’s Ad-
versaries Through Sanctions Act (P.L. 115–44); 
Whereas Members of Congress, on a bipartisan basis, have 
urged the Department of Homeland Security to take ac-
tion to stop seafood imports from China to enter the 
United States market, until importers show that no 
North Korean or Uyghur labor was used in processing; 
Whereas, 
according 
to 
the 
United 
Nations 
Special 
Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in North 
Korea in 2023, as many as 2,000 North Korean asylum 
seekers and refugees were arrested and detained in China 
during the COVID–19 lockdown; 
Whereas at a July 2023 hearing at the Congressional-Execu-
tive Commission on China titled ‘‘North Korean Refugees 
and the Imminent Danger of Forced Repatriation from 
China,’’ satellite images were shown detailing expanded 
detention facilities for North Koreans in China; 
Whereas United Nations Third Committee adopted a resolu-
tion (A/C.3.78/L.39) in November 2023, reminded UN 
member states, without naming the People’s Republic of 
China, to comply with its obligations to protect North 
Korean refugees under the United Nations Convention 
Relating to the Status of Refugees of 1951 (1951 United 
Nations Refugee Convention), and its Protocol Relating 
to the Status of Refugees of 1967 (1967 United Nations 
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•HRES 1080 IH 
Refugee Protocol), which defines a refugee as a person 
who, ‘‘owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for 
reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a 
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, despite the obligations of the People’s Republic of 
China, as a state party to the 1951 United Nations Ref-
ugee Convention and the 1967 United Nations Refugee 
Protocol, the Government routinely classifies North Kore-
ans in China as ‘‘economic migrants’’ and forcibly re-
turns them to North Korea without regard to the reason 
they escaped North Korea or the serious threat of perse-
cution they face upon their return; 
Whereas the United Nations Resolution of November 2023 
‘‘strongly urge(d)’’ United Nations member states to re-
spect the principle of nonrefoulment, or forced deporta-
tions, given the ‘‘internment, torture, [and] other cruel 
and degrading treatment or punishment . . . including 
the death penalty,’’ faced by North Koreans forcibly re-
turned from the People’s Republic of China; 
Whereas the People’s Republic of China is a signatory to the 
United Nations Convention Against Torture, which obli-
gates United Nations member states to protect individ-
uals, regardless of their migratory status, if there is a 
risk of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or 
punishment, including the death penalty or enforced dis-
appearances upon return; 
Whereas the Government of the People’s Republic of China 
continues to deny access to its border regions with North 
Korea to the United Nations High Commission for Refu-
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•HRES 1080 IH 
gees (UNHCR) and to deny the UNHCR staff in the 
PRC to determine the status of asylum or refugee claims, 
as the People’s Republic of China is obligated to do by 
its international legal obligations: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) strongly encourages the President, the Sec-
retary of State, and all other relevant Cabinet Offi-
cers to raise with the officials of the Government of 
the People’s Republic of China, in both bilateral and 
relevant multilateral settings, the interests of the 
United States in protecting North Koreans seeking 
asylum or those trafficked in the People’s Republic 
of China, including through— 
(A) encouraging fulfilling of international 
obligations to protect refugees and address 
human trafficking within the People’s Republic 
of China under the 1951 United Nations Ref-
ugee Convention and the 1967 Refugee Pro-
tocol; Article 3 of the Convention Against Tor-
ture, and the Palermo Protocol, all which the 
which the Government of the People’s Republic 
of China has acceded to and ratified; 
(B) using the voice, vote, and influence at 
the United Nations to ensure that the UNHCR 
is able to protect North Korea asylum seekers 
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•HRES 1080 IH 
and provide them with a reasonable opportunity 
to request asylum and be processed in-country; 
(C) ensuring that the Government of the 
People’s Republic of China understands the in-
terests of the United States and allied nations 
in ending North Korean labor in the People’s 
Republic of China as such labor is a source of 
foreign capital for the North Korean Govern-
ment which is diverted to its nuclear program; 
(D) using the voice, vote, and influence at 
the United Nations to ensure that the People’s 
Republic of China and other United Nations 
member states fulfill United Nations Resolution 
2397 (para. 8) prohibiting the use of North Ko-
rean labor; and 
(E) ensuring that the Government of the 
People’s Republic of China remains fully aware 
that goods produced with the labor of North 
Koreans in China are presumptively prohibited 
entry into the United States market under 
Countering America’s Adversaries Through 
Sanctions Act (P.L. 115–44); 
(2) encourages the Secretary of State to— 
(A) coordinate diplomatic actions with the 
Governments of South Korea, Japan, and other 
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•HRES 1080 IH 
concerned Governments to end the forced de-
portations and forced labor of North Koreans 
living in China; 
(B) build coalitions with allies and part-
ners at the United Nations to— 
(i) fully implement the recommenda-
tions of the United Nation’s Commission 
of Inquiry on Human Rights in North 
Korea; 
(ii) continue requests for briefings at 
the United Nations Security Council by the 
High Commissioner for Human Rights and 
the Special Rapporteur on the Situation in 
North Korea; 
(iii) schedule regular Arria-formula 
meetings at the United Nations Security 
Council on the situation of North Koreans 
in China; 
(iv) coordinate joint actions and reso-
lutions on the issue of the forced repatri-
ation or forcible return of North Koreans 
from China and other human rights abuses 
experienced in China with like-minded al-
lies at the United Nations Human Rights 
Council; and 
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