Text: Resolution Calls on North Korea to Respect Human Rights of Citizens
(House passes Res. 109 by a 419-1 vote March 18) (1190)
The House of Representatives approved March 18 by a 419-1 margin a
resolution calling on the government of North Korea to "respect and
protect the human rights of its citizens."
House Resolution 109 (H. Res. 109) also calls on the Secretary of
State "to draft, introduce, and work toward the passage of a
resolution addressing human rights abuses in North Korea at the 59th
session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights."
H. Res. 109 noted eyewitness testimony provided to the Committee on
International Relations by survivors of North Korean prison camps who
said that camp inmates were 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."
Camp survivors also said that female camp prisoners were not permitted
to have children and their newborn babies were "routinely and brutally
killed by camp authorities."
The 59th session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights is
being held in Geneva, Switzerland from March 17 to April 25.
Following is the text of House Resolution 109 from the Congressional
Record:
(begin text)
108th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 109
Urging passage of a resolution addressing human rights abuses in North
Korea at the 59th session of the United Nations Commission on Human
Rights, and calling on the Government of North Korea to respect and
protect the human rights of its citizens.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 27, 2003
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. WOLF, Mr. PITTS, Mr. LINCOLN
DIAZ-BALART of Florida, Mr. CHABOT, Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN, Mr. ROHRABACHER,
Mr. BEREUTER, Mr. HOEFFEL, Mr. WEXLER, Mr. MARKEY, Ms. BORDALLO, Mr.
LEACH, Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA, Mr. GALLEGLY, and Mr. WAMP) submitted the
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on
International Relations
RESOLUTION
Urging passage of a resolution addressing human rights abuses in North
Korea at the 59th session of the United Nations Commission on Human
Rights, and calling on the Government of North Korea to respect and
protect the human rights of its citizens.
Whereas the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (in this preamble
referred to as `North Korea') is, in the words of the United States
Department of State, `a dictatorship under the absolute rule of the
Korean Workers' Party' that `prohibits freedom of speech, the press,
assembly, and association . . . [and] restricts freedom of religion,
citizens' movements, and worker rights';
Whereas according to the State Department, `[t]he [North Korean] Penal
Code is Draconian, stipulating capital punishment and confiscation of
assets for a wide variety of `crimes against the revolution,'
including defection, attempted defection, slander of the policies of
the party or State, listening to foreign broadcasts, writing
`reactionary' letters, and possessing reactionary printed matter';
Whereas, as noted in the State Department Country Reports on Human
Rights Practices, the North Korean regime executes political
prisoners, opponents of the regime, some repatriated defectors, some
members of underground churches, and others, sometimes at public
meetings attended by workers, students, and school children;
Whereas the North Korean regime 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 which, in the words of the State Department, `approaches
the level of a state religion';
Whereas the North Korean regime divides its population into
categories, based on perceived loyalty to the Party and the
leadership, which determine access to employment, higher education,
place of residence, medical facilities, and other resources;
Whereas the North Korean regime attempts to control all information,
artistic expression, and academic works inside North Korea and
strictly curtails freedom of speech;
Whereas the Government of North Korea holds an estimated 150,000 to
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;
Whereas according to eyewitness testimony provided to the Committee on
International Relations of the House of Representatives by 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;
Whereas according to eyewitness testimony provided to the Committee on
International Relations by a camp survivor, female camp prisoners are
not permitted to have children and their newborn babies are routinely
and brutally killed by camp authorities;
Whereas according to the State Department `(g)enuine religious freedom
does not exist' in North Korea and, in the words of the United States
Commission on International Religious Freedom, `[t]he North Korean
state severely represses public and private religious activities';
Whereas the United States Commission on International Religious
Freedom has highlighted `reports that (North Korean) officials have
arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and sometimes executed North Korean
citizens who were found to have ties with overseas Christian
evangelical groups operating across the border in China, as well as
those who engaged in such unauthorized religious activities as public
religious expression and persuasion';
Whereas according to eyewitness testimony provided to the Committee on
International Relations in May 2002, a North Korean prison camp
survivor witnessed a group of Christian prisoners being tortured to
death in 1990 for refusing to repudiate their faith;
Whereas more than 1,000,000 North Koreans are estimated to have died
of starvation since 1995 because of the failure of the centralized
agricultural system operated by the Government of North Korea;
Whereas the risk of starvation and the threat of persecution in North
Korea have caused many thousands of North Koreans to flee their
homeland, primarily into the People's Republic of China;
Whereas the Governments of the People's Republic of China and North
Korea have been conducting aggressive campaigns to locate North
Koreans who are in the People's Republic of China without permission
and to forcibly return them to North Korea;
Whereas North Koreans who seek asylum while in the People's Republic
of China are routinely imprisoned and tortured, and in some cases
killed, after they are returned to North Korea; and
Whereas the 59th session of the United Nations Commission on Human
Rights is scheduled to be held in Geneva, Switzerland from March 17 to
April 25, 2003: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) urges the Secretary of State to draft, introduce, and work toward
the passage of a resolution addressing human rights abuses in North
Korea at the 59th session of the United Nations Commission on Human
Rights; and
(2) urges all members of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
to support a resolution addressing human rights abuses in North Korea
at the 59th session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights;
and
(3) calls on the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea to respect and protect the human rights of its citizens, such as
those recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
(end text)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
