HR 5834 RFS 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘North Korean Human 
Rights Reauthorization Act of 2008’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The North Korean Human Rights Act of 
2004 (Public Law 108–333; 22 U.S.C. 7801 et seq.) 
(in this section referred to as ‘‘the Act’’) was the 
product of broad, bipartisan consensus in Congress 
regarding the promotion of human rights, trans-
parency in the delivery of humanitarian assistance, 
and refugee protection. 
(2) In addition to the longstanding commitment 
of the United States to refugee and human rights 
advocacy, the United States is home to the largest 
Korean population outside of northeast Asia, and 
many in the two-million strong Korean-American 
community have family ties to North Korea. 
(3) Human rights and humanitarian conditions 
inside North Korea are deplorable, North Korean 
refugees remain acutely vulnerable, and the findings 
in section 3 of the Act remain accurate today. 
(4) The Government of China is conducting an 
increasingly aggressive campaign to locate and forc-
ibly return border-crossers to North Korea, where 
they routinely face torture and imprisonment, and 
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sometimes execution. According to recent reports, 
the Chinese Government is shutting down Christian 
churches and imprisoning people who help North 
Korean defectors, and has increased the bounty paid 
for turning in a North Korean refugee by a factor 
of sixteen, to an amount roughly equivalent to the 
average annual income in China. 
(5) In an attempt to deter escape attempts, the 
Government of North Korea has reportedly stepped 
up its public execution of border-crossers and those 
who help others cross into China, including the Feb-
ruary 20, 2008, shooting of 13 women and 2 men 
in Onsung County, and the March 30, 2008, execu-
tion of three residents in Hyesan. As is commonly 
the case, employees and residents of nearby institu-
tions, enterprises, and neighborhoods were required 
to attend and observe those killings. 
(6) In spite of the requirement of the Act that 
the Special Envoy on Human Rights in North Korea 
(the ‘‘Special Envoy’’) report to the Congress no 
later than April 16, 2005, a Special Envoy was not 
appointed until August 19, 2005, more than four 
months after the reporting deadline. 
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(7) The Special Envoy appointed by the Presi-
dent has filled that position on a part-time basis 
only. 
(8) On February 21, 2006, a bipartisan group 
of senior Members of the House and Senate wrote 
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ‘‘to express 
[their] deep concern for the lack of progress in fund-
ing and implementing the key provisions of the 
North Korean Human Rights Act’’, particularly the 
lack of North Korean refugee admissions to the 
United States. 
(9) Although the United States refugee resettle-
ment program remains the largest in the world by 
far, the United States has resettled only 37 North 
Koreans in the period from 2004 through 2007. 
(10) From the end of 2004 through 2007, the 
Republic of Korea resettled 5,961 North Koreans. 
(11) Extensive delays in assessment and proc-
essing at overseas posts have led numerous North 
Korean refugees to abandon their quest for United 
States resettlement, and long waits (of more than a 
year in some cases) have been the source of consid-
erable discouragement and frustration among refu-
gees, many of whom are awaiting United States re-
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settlement in circumstances that are unsafe and in-
secure. 
(12) From 2000 through 2006, the United 
States granted asylum to 15 North Koreans, as 
compared to 60 North Korean asylum grantees in 
the United Kingdom, and 135 in Germany during 
that same period. 
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that— 
(1) the United States should make it a priority 
to seek broader permission and greater cooperation 
from foreign governments to allow the United States 
to process North Korean refugees overseas for reset-
tlement in the United States, through persistent di-
plomacy by senior officials of the United States, in-
cluding United States ambassadors to Asia-Pacific 
nations; 
(2) at the same time that careful screening of 
intending refugees is important, the United States 
also should make every effort to ensure that its 
screening, processing, and resettlement of North Ko-
rean refugees are as efficient and expeditious as pos-
sible; 
(3) the Special Envoy for North Korean 
Human Rights Issues should be a full-time position 
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within the Department of State in order to properly 
promote and coordinate North Korean human 
rights, humanitarian, and refugee issues, as in-
tended by the North Korean Human Rights Act of 
2004 (Public Law 108–333; 22 U.S.C. 7801 et 
seq.); 
(4) in an effort to more efficiently and actively 
participate in humanitarian burden-sharing, the 
United States should approach our ally, the Republic 
of Korea, to revisit and explore new opportunities 
for coordinating efforts to screen and resettle North 
Koreans who have expressed a wish to pursue reset-
tlement in the United States and have not yet 
availed themselves of any right to citizenship they 
may enjoy under the Constitution of the Republic of 
Korea; and 
(5) because there are genuine refugees among 
North Koreans fleeing into China who face severe 
punishments upon their forcible return, the United 
States should urge the Government of China to— 
(A) immediately halt its forcible repatri-
ation of North Koreans; 
(B) fulfill its obligations pursuant to the 
1951 United Nations Convention Relating to 
the Status of Refugees, the 1967 Protocol Re-
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