Pub.L. 108-334 Making appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2005, and for other purposes. <> ...

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[[Page 118 STAT. 1287]]

Public Law 108-333
108th Congress

                                 An Act


 
To promote human rights and freedom in the Democratic People's Republic 
    of Korea, and for other purposes. <<NOTE: Oct. 18, 2004 -  [H.R. 
                                4011]>> 

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled, <<NOTE: North Korean 
Human Rights Act of 2004. 22 USC 7801 note.>> 

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.
Sec. 106. Establishment of regional framework.
Sec. 107. Special Envoy on Human Rights in North Korea.

                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. <<NOTE: 22 USC 7801.>> FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) <<NOTE: Kim Jong Il.>> 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, academic works, and media 
        activity inside North Korea and strictly curtails freedom of 
        speech and access to foreign broadcasts.
            (3) <<NOTE: Kim Il Sung.>> The Government of North Korea 
        subjects all its citizens to systematic, intensive political and 
        ideological indoctrination

[[Page 118 STAT. 1288]]

        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 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''.
            (6) The Government of North Korea 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 
        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 eyewitness 
        testimony provided to the United States Congress, North Korean 
        Government officials prohibit live births in prison camps, and 
        forced abortion and the killing of newborn babies are standard 
        prison practices.
            (10) According to the Department of State, ``[g]enuine 
        religious freedom does not exist in North Korea'' and, according 
        to the United States Commission on International Religious 
        Freedom, ``[t]he North Korean state severely represses public 
        and private religious activities'' with penalties that 
        reportedly 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 agricultural and public distribution systems 
        operated by the Government of North Korea.
            (12) According to a 2002 United Nations-European Union 
        survey, nearly one out of every ten children 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 provided more than 
        2,000,000 tons of humanitarian food assistance to the people of 
        North Korea, primarily 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 
        continues to deny the World Food Program forms

[[Page 118 STAT. 1289]]

        of access necessary to properly monitor the delivery of 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 persecution, 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, particularly 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 concubines, 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 permission 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 Korea 
        without regard to the serious threat of persecution 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 deportation despite its obligations under the 
        1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of 
        Refugees 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 attempting to assist North Korean 
        refugees in proceedings that did not comply with Chinese law or 
        international standards.
            (22) <<NOTE: Kim Dong-shik.>> In January 2000, North Korean 
        agents inside 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.
            (23) Between 1994 and 2003, South Korea has admitted 
        approximately 3,800 North Korean refugees for domestic 
        resettlement, a number that is small in comparison with the 
        total number of North Korean escapees but far greater than the 
        number legally admitted in 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 international attention on the plight of these 
        refugees, and formulating international solutions to that 
        profound 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.

[[Page 118 STAT. 1290]]

SEC. 4. <<NOTE: 22 USC 7802.>> 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 solution to the 
        plight of North Korean refugees;
            (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 reunification of 
        the Korean peninsula under a democratic system of government.

SEC. 5. <<NOTE: 22 USC 7803.>> DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term 
        ``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
                    (A) the Committee on International Relations of the 
                House of Representatives; and
                    (B) the Committee on Foreign Relations of the 
                Senate.
            (2) China.--The term ``China'' means the People's Republic 
        of China.
            (3) Humanitarian assistance.--The term ``humanitarian 
        assistance'' means assistance to meet humanitarian needs, 
        including needs for food, medicine, medical supplies, clothing, 
        and shelter.
            (4) North korea.--The term ``North Korea'' means the 
        Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
            (5) North koreans.--The term ``North Koreans'' 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. <<NOTE: 22 USC 7811.>> 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 negotiations between the United 
States, North Korea, and other concerned parties in Northeast Asia.

SEC. 102. <<NOTE: 22 USC 7812.>> SUPPORT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY 
            PROGRAMS.

    (a) <<NOTE: President. Grants.>> Support.--The President is 
authorized to provide 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 educational and cultural exchange programs with 
North Korean participants, to the extent not otherwise prohibited by 
law.

    (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 this section.

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            (2) Availability.--Amounts appropriated pursuant to the 
        authorization of appropriations under paragraph (1) are 
        authorized to remain available until expended.

SEC. 103. RADIO BROADCASTING TO NORTH <<NOTE: 22 USC 7813.>> KOREA.

    (a) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress 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 broadcasting 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
            (2) outlines a plan for increasing such broadcasts to 12 
        hours per day, including a detailed description of the technical 
        and fiscal requirements necessary to implement the plan.

SEC. 104. <<NOTE: 22 USC 7814.>> ACTIONS TO PROMOTE FREEDOM OF 
            INFORMATION.

    (a) <<NOTE: President.>> Actions.--The President is authorized to 
take such actions as may be necessary to increase the availability 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 subsection (a).
            (2) Availability.--Amounts appropriated pursuant to the 
        authorization of appropriations under paragraph (1) are 
        authorized to remain available until expended.

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