IV 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 168 
Condemning the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for the abductions 
and continued captivity of citizens of the Republic of Korea and Japan 
as acts of terrorism and gross violations of human rights. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 26, 2005 
Mr. HYDE (for himself, Mr. CHABOT, Mr. SHIMKUS, Mr. ROHRABACHER, Mr. 
PITTS, Mr. LYNCH, and Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts) submitted the fol-
lowing concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
International Relations 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 
Condemning the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for 
the abductions and continued captivity of citizens of the 
Republic of Korea and Japan as acts of terrorism and 
gross violations of human rights. 
Whereas since the end of the Korean War, the Government 
of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has kid-
napped thousands of South Korean citizens and as many 
as a hundred Japanese citizens, including Rumiko 
Masumoto, Megumi Yokota, and Reverend Kim Dong- 
shik; 
Whereas the forced detention and frequent murder of those 
individuals abducted by North Korea have caused untold 
grief and suffering to their families;
•HCON 168 IH 
Whereas on September 17, 2002, after considerable pressure 
from the Government of Japan, North Korean leader 
Kim Jong-il admitted that agents of his government had 
abducted thirteen Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 
1980s and assured Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro 
Koizumi that this would never happen again; 
Whereas despite assurances to the contrary, North Korea 
continues to order and carry out abductions, and, as re-
cently as August 8, 2004, North Korean agents operating 
along the Chinese border kidnapped Ms. Jin Kyung-sook, 
a former North Korean refugee and South Korean pass-
port-holder; 
Whereas the abduction policy of North Korea has been inte-
gral to its espionage and terrorist activities, and 
abductees have been kidnapped to work as spies, to train 
North Korean agents in language, accents, and culture, 
and to steal identities, as in the case of Mr. Tadaaki 
Hara; 
Whereas the Pyongyang regime used abductee Ms. Yaeko 
Taguchi as the Japanese language instructor for North 
Korean terrorist Kim Hyon-hee, who was caught carrying 
a Japanese passport after planting a bomb on Korean 
Air Lines flight 858 that killed 115 people in 1987; 
Whereas many victims of North Korean abduction have been 
seized during terrorist attacks, as in the hijacking of 
South Korean planes in 1958 and 1969, and, decades 
later, Pyongyang continues to hold twelve passengers of 
a hijacked Korean Air flight, including passenger Mr. 
Chang Ji-young and flight attendant Ms. Song Kyong-hi, 
who has since been allowed a brief visit by her South Ko-
rean family;
•HCON 168 IH 
Whereas North Korean agents have hijacked numerous South 
Korean ships and kidnapped the seamen and fishermen 
aboard the vessels, such as Choi Jong-suk, Kim Soon- 
keun, and ten other crewmen of the Dongjin 27, a ship 
that was seized in 1987, and Seoul estimates that hun-
dreds of these abductees are still alive in North Korea; 
Whereas boat hijackings and the kidnapping of fishermen 
have devastated South Korean fishing communities, such 
as Nongso village on the southern island of Geoje, a com-
munity of 210 people that lost 14 sons, husbands, and 
fathers when North Korea seized three ships in 1971 and 
1972; 
Whereas the North Korean authorities conspired with mem-
bers of the Japanese Red Army, a group designated as 
a terrorist organization by the United States Department 
of State, to kidnap Keiko Arimoto, a young Japanese 
woman studying abroad; 
Whereas according to the records of the Unification Ministry 
of the Republic of Korea, 486 South Korean abductees 
are still alive and being held in North Korea, and among 
these individuals are fishermen, seamen, airline pas-
sengers, teachers, students, and pastors; 
Whereas North Korean agents have abducted children, caus-
ing unimaginable anguish to parents who live decades 
with the uncertainty of what has happened to their child, 
as in the cases of Takeshi Terakoshi, a thirteen-year-old 
boy kidnapped from a fishing boat with his two uncles, 
and Lee Min-gyo and Choi Seung-min, two seventeen- 
year-old friends abducted off a beach in South Korea; 
Whereas North Korean agents kidnapped thirteen-year-old 
Megumi Yokota, as she was walking home from school,
•HCON 168 IH 
and subsequently reported that she married and had a 
daughter in North Korea before committing suicide in 
1993, and that Megumi’s daughter remains there sepa-
rated from her family in Japan; 
Whereas the Pyongyang regime has abducted a number of 
South Korean ministers who were bravely working to res-
cue North Koreans escaping on the underground railroad 
through China, including Reverend Ahn Seung-woon and 
Reverend Kim Dong-shik, the latter of whose welfare is 
of particular importance to representatives of the State 
of Illinois; 
Whereas on April 21, 2005, the Seoul Central District Court 
convicted Chinese citizen Ryu Young-hwa of assisting 
North Korean agents in the abduction of Reverend Kim 
and, further, that a Chinese court convicted a North Ko-
rean citizen of masterminding the abduction of Reverend 
Ahn, and deported the agent to North Korea in July 
1997 following a two-year prison term; 
Whereas some of the abductees have risked their lives in try-
ing to escape North Korea, as in the case of South Ko-
rean fisherman Im Kuk-jae, who has twice attempted to 
escape since his kidnapping in 1987, and is now believed 
to be imprisoned in one of North Korea’s notorious labor 
camps; 
Whereas the North Korean regime continues to deceive the 
international community regarding its ongoing abductions 
and has furnished false information concerning eight 
Japanese abductees, including suspicious accounts of 
their supposed premature deaths; 
Whereas the Government of North Korea has never convinc-
ingly accounted for Ms. Rumiko Masumoto and Mr.
•HCON 168 IH 
Shuichi Ichikawa, kidnapped by Pyongyang agents from 
a beach in Japan on August 12, 1978, and claims that 
Mr. Ichikawa drowned in the sea, despite his dislike of 
swimming, and that the formerly healthy Ms. Masumoto 
died of a heart attack at the age of 27; 
Whereas North Korea claims abductees Mr. Toru Ishioka and 
Ms. Keiko Arimoto, who were kidnapped separately in 
Europe and later married, supposedly died together with 
their small daughter of gas poisoning in 1988, two 
months after they were successful in getting a letter out 
of North Korea to family members in Japan; 
Whereas although the Pyongyang regime claimed to return 
the alleged cremated remains of Mr. Kaoru Matsuki and 
Ms. Megumi Yokota to Japanese officials, both remains 
appear not to be authentic, and, according to Pyongyang, 
the bodies of the six remaining Japanese abductees have 
conveniently been washed away during flooding and can-
not be recovered to verify the causes of their untimely 
deaths; 
Whereas despite the efforts of the Japanese Government, the 
Pyongyang regime continues to deny any knowledge of 
the abductions of Mr. Yutaka Kume, Mr. Minoru Ta-
naka, and Ms. Miyoshi Soga, the mother of another ac-
knowledged abductee, despite overwhelming evidence of 
North Korean collusion in their disappearances; 
Whereas North Korean abductions have not been limited to 
northeast Asia and many documented abductees have 
been kidnapped while abroad, such as Mr. Lee Chae- 
hwan, a young MIT graduate student traveling in Aus-
tria, and Mr. Ko Sang-moon, a South Korean teacher 
kidnapped in Norway, making the issue of serious con-
cern to the international community;
•HCON 168 IH 
Whereas there have been credible reports that North Korea 
may have abducted citizens from many other countries in 
addition to South Korea and Japan, including persons 
from China, Europe, and the Middle East; 
Whereas for more than fifty years, North Korea has held 
South Korean prisoners-of-war captured during the Ko-
rean War, in clear violation of Article III of the Korean 
War Armistice Agreement signed on July 27, 1953, and 
the South Korean Ministry of National Defense estimates 
that 542 captives are still alive in North Korea, accord-
ing to testimony given before the National Assembly in 
February 2005; 
Whereas according to the testimony of prisoners-of-war who 
have successfully escaped from North Korea, South Ko-
rean prisoners-of-war have been forced to perform hard 
labor for decades, often in mines, and are harshly treated 
by the Pyongyang regime; 
Whereas after being forcibly held in North Korea for fifty- 
one years, South Korean prisoner-of-war Han Man-taek, 
age 72, escaped to China, was detained by Chinese police 
and forcibly repatriated to North Korea earlier this year, 
where he inevitably faced punitive measures and possible 
execution; and 
Whereas these South Korean prisoners-of-war served under 
the United Nations Command, fighting alongside their 
American and Allied fellow soldiers, and therefore are the 
direct concern of the Allied nations who contributed 
forces during the Korean War: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That Congress—
•HCON 168 IH 
(1) condemns the Government of the Demo-
cratic People’s Republic of Korea for the abduction 
and continued captivity of citizens of the Republic of 
Korea and Japan as acts of terrorism and gross vio-
lations of human rights; 
(2) calls upon the North Korean Government to 
immediately cease and desist from carrying out ab-
ductions, release all victims of kidnapping and pris-
oners-of-war still alive in North Korea, and provide 
a full and verifiable accounting of all other cases; 
(3) recognizes that resolution of the nuclear 
issue with North Korea is of critical importance, 
however, this should not preclude United States 
Government officials from raising abduction cases 
and other critical human rights concerns in any fu-
ture negotiations with the North Korean regime; 
(4) calls upon the United States Government 
not to remove the Democratic People’s Republic of 
Korea from the Department of State’s list of State 
Sponsors of Terrorism until such time that North 
Korea renounces state-sponsored kidnapping and 
provides a full accounting of all abduction cases; and 
(5) admonishes the Government of the People’s 
Republic of China for the forced repatriation to 
North Korea of Han Man-taek, a South Korean
•HCON 168 IH 
prisoner-of-war and comrade-in-arms of the United 
States, and for its failure to exercise sovereign con-
trol over teams of North Korean agents operating 
freely within its borders. 
Æ