North Korean Child Welfare Act of 2012

I thank the gentlelady for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, this is the North Korean Refugee Adoption Act of 2011, and I want to thank Chairman Ros-Lehtinen and Ranking Member Berman for their support of this bill, and also I think we should thank the numerous Korean American organizations

from around this country that tirelessly advocated on behalf of its passage. They are the groups that originally came to me with the heart- wrenching problem that these orphans face, and they suggested an idea for a solution. I would like to recognize the Defense Forum Foundation, the North Korea Freedom Coalition, the Korean Church Coalition for North Korea Freedom, the Korean American Coalition, the Korean Churches for Community Development, the 300 Pastoral Coalition, and the 318 Partners. These are the groups that suggested that with a lot of hard work we might get this legislation through. They put through countless phone calls and meetings and rallies up here on Capitol Hill and I think really helped generate the widespread support that this bill has today.

Of course, the bill stems from the problem that for over 50 years North Korea has been one of the world's most repressive regimes. Every imaginable freedom that we enjoy here--speech or assembly or association or worship, and actually oddly enough, even the right to smile--is denied in North Korea by one statute or another. Meanwhile, the regime's elites live in luxury. Of course, the people, especially in the rural areas of North Korea, starve.

It is little wonder why tens of thousands of North Koreans, many of them women and children, flee to China. For many, it's a last resort. It's a final chance to avoid starvation for those children and avoid unspeakable oppression. Yet that choice is not always an easy one. That path to freedom is very perilous. Those fleeing North Korea often make their journey during the winter, and they cross over that Tumen River as it's frozen. Those temperatures there are subzero, and the terrain is treacherous. It is an obstacle course of checkpoints and of informants, and they make that a very dangerous journey. Sadly, but not surprisingly, many refugees succumb to the elements. There are many bodies frozen along that bank.

Those that survive also face dangers from human traffickers. As one dissident told National Geographic, crossing the Tumen was easy compared to what happened next as she was tricked into getting into a car that belonged to a sex trafficker. For the next year, she remained locked in a room, forced into selling her body. The result of all of this is that many North Korean orphans are left in China. Worse yet, they are stateless and they are without identification. Estimates show that thousands of children are left stateless in the border region between North Korea and China, and there they suffer. If they're sent back to North Korea, they suffer unimaginably.

Mr. Speaker, this is why we need to pass this legislation. This bill is a good first step in responding to this human rights crisis. Specifically, this bill would have the State Department develop a strategy for assisting stateless children from North Korea.

While many American families would welcome the opportunity to adopt a North Korean orphan, many hurdles remain. For example, children must certify that they have lost their parents or legal guardians and that they have absolutely no one to rely on. A child orphan in North Korea would have a very hard time proving that attestation.

Most of these children have great difficulty proving this to their own understanding, and they have no death certificate of parents, and many have no proof that they truly are orphans. By passing this bill, we will be taking an important step towards solving these problems.

We are not committing to any particular policies, but we are committing to doing what we can to help these defenseless children. We are trying to create a win/win for these desperate young ones, orphans living in deplorable conditions and their potential new families.

Again, I thank you, Chairman Ros-Lehtinen, I thank you for your support, and we thank the numerous American Korean organizations, and we thank Ranking Member Berman for all of this help. I urge my colleagues to support this important bill.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1464) to develop a strategy for assisting stateless children from North Korea, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I kindly ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous materials into the Record on this measure.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in strong support of H.R. 1464, the North Korean Refugee Adoption Act, of which I am a proud cosponsor.

I want to thank my good friend from California (Mr. Royce), who is the chairman of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade on our Foreign Affairs Committee and who is a longtime advocate on North Korean human rights and refugee issues, for introducing this important bill.

We are all too keenly aware of the extreme repression, the malnutrition, and the poverty suffered by so many inside North Korea today. Those threats often take the greatest toll on children.

Imagine what happens when a child's natural protectors--parents--are no longer in the picture. Imagine what happens when that child is born or orphaned inside China when the child lacks legal status or dependable access to social services: malnutrition, abuse, exploitation, lack of education. These are the horrors that are faced by orphans of North Korean origin who are effectively stateless and without protection.

Mr. Speaker, the United States is home to the largest ethnic Korean population outside of Northeast Asia, and many of the nearly 2 million Americans of Korean descent have family ties to North Korea. Numerous American families would like to provide caring homes to these stateless North Korean orphans. H.R. 1464 is a responsible first step toward making that possible.

This bill does not ignore the unique challenges involved with ensuring that North Korean adoptees are genuine orphans and not fraudulent victims of trafficking. It does not change U.S. immigration law, nor the legal standards for adoption. It does not reduce the need for China to begin abiding by its refugee convention obligations to vulnerable North Koreans within its borders. And it does not diminish our commitment to assisting intact refugee families or to reunifying families that are separated.

What it does do, Mr. Speaker, is require that our State Department take a broad look at the diplomatic and documentation challenges facing American families who would like to adopt North Korean orphans and report to Congress on potential strategies to address them.

Doing the right thing is not always easy.

I especially want to applaud those adoptive parents, both past and future, who invest their own lives and homes to provide loving families for some of the world's most endangered children. H.R. 1464 is a welcome step forward, Mr. Speaker, and deserves our unanimous support.

With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I'm so pleased to yield 6 minutes to the other gentleman from California (Mr. Royce), the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade, and the author of this important bill.

Mr. Speaker, I think Mr. Royce did a wonderful job in summing up our bipartisan position.

With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1464.

I would like to thank the sponsor of this legislation, the gentleman from California (Mr. Royce), as well as the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, for their leadership on this issue and for their work in supporting the plight of North Korean refugees.

Despite North Korea's efforts to appear ``strong and prosperous'' this year to celebrate the 100th birthday of the country's founder, vast numbers of its people live in dire conditions. Sadly, the North Korean regime's misguided priorities, pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into its so-called ``space program,'' its nuclear programs, and its massive military only underscore its cold-hearted callousness and blatant disregard for its own citizens.

Thousands of North Korean children do not have families to care for them and are threatened with starvation and disease if they remain in North Korea or as refugees in neighboring countries, especially China. Many of the children that have fled the north are hiding and live in mortal fear of being caught and sent back to North Korea where they would face severe punishment and even death. Equally terrifying is the prospect of being sold into bondage by human traffickers in China.

As a beacon of hope for the rest of the world, the United States must do all it can to help these vulnerable and destitute children. That's why I'm proud to be a cosponsor of Mr. Royce's legislation, H.R. 1464, the North Korea Refugee Adoption Act. This bill calls on the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security to formulate and report to Congress on a strategy for facilitating the adoption of North Korean children by U.S. citizens. Passage of this bill will be the first step in helping the thousands of North Korean child refugees living alone in foreign lands, and it would provide a glimmer of hope to the American families who would welcome the opportunity to adopt North Korean orphans.

The impending passage of this bill speaks to the broad bipartisan consensus in Congress regarding the atrocious human rights situation in North Korea. As innocent men, women, and children flee the repressive North Korean regime at great personal risk, we have a moral obligation to assist them. H.R. 1464 is not merely about adoption, but also an issue of human rights for the North Korean people. We must continue working to ensure that the North Korean people are not forgotten and that orphaned North Korean children will get the care and support they need.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I urge support for the legislation.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, as a cosponsor of H.R. 1464, the North Korea Refugee Adoption Act of 2011, I rise to thank Mr. Royce and Ranking Member Berman for bringing this important bipartisan bill to the floor on September 11, 2012.

This bill was introduced to assist North Korean children living ``stateless'' outside of that country who face starvation and neglect because they are neither North Korean citizens nor citizens of the country where they currently reside. There are many American families who would love to give a home to these orphans and refugee children if they could. This legislation will help make that process easier.

The bill encourages the Homeland and State Departments to develop strategies to help reunite North Korean refugee children with their families or to facilitate the adoption of the children by citizens of South Korea, China or other countries. Many of these children have Chinese fathers and North Korean mothers but are not claimed by either parent, and being stateless, don't have access to the resources of either country. This bill will help provide for their immediate care and begin the process of getting them settled.

I am proud to support this bill and ask my colleagues to join me.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 1464 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. President, I further ask unanimous consent that the Burr substitute amendment, which is at the desk, be agreed to; the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed; that the title amendment, which is at the desk, be agreed to; that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and any statements relating to the measure be printed in the Record.