North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act of 2017

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2061) to reauthorize the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include any extraneous material in the Record.

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

Mr. Speaker, let me point out that the world is rightly focused on the threat that North Korea poses to global security--the detonations, the missile launches, the forward-deployed artillery--that we have seen from across the border in South Korea.

I have been once to North Korea. I know my colleague, Eliot Engel, has been twice to the capital there. But going along the eastern coast--the eastern seaboard into North Korea--you can see the threat. You can see the artillery--the tanks, the Katyusha rockets, and the howitzers lined up--and you can see where they are aimed.

I think we have to maybe point out that the provocations underscore a simple, jarring fact, and that is that Kim Jong-un wants to pose a mortal threat, and not just to the United States, but to our democratic treaty allies--to South Korea and to Japan.

But I think, as we face that reality, we cannot afford to forget that the regime's greatest victims are the people of North Korea themselves. That is the longest held hostage here. And remembering that this is not just a moral imperative, but, also, it is a strategic one, too. If Kim Jong-un had to answer to the North Korean people, he would pose far less a danger to us, to South Korea, and to Japan. Maybe he would pose no danger whatsoever if he really had to answer to his own people.

The truth is that Kim Jong-un's most potent enemy is his own citizens, if they were to be empowered. The regime should be forced to confront the dismal reality that it has inflicted on its own population. Obsessed not just with self-preservation, but also with his concept of reunification of the peninsula--based on the words he uses-- under his own leadership, he and his father and his father's father have been willing to inflict starvation and stunting.

I asked Hwang Jang-yop, the former minister of propaganda--myself and one of my colleagues here had asked him--and he said that 2 million people had been starved by the regime. He said the real number was 1.9 million. And he said: You have to understand, we put all the resources into the weapons program, into the ICBM program, and into the nuclear capability. People fend for themselves basically. That is the system there. And when he defected, the propaganda minister shared that with us.

In the meantime, you will notice that there is one man in that system that feasts on imported luxuries and on liquor, and that is the deity himself. That is Kim Jong-un. The bonds of public affection for Kim certainly are strong in the capital, but, in the countryside, those who have defected tell me that they are so fragile that they can only be maintained with purges, with public executions, and with deadly prison camps.

It is no wonder, then, that the regime's harshest critics are escaped North Koreans who have seen through the wall of misinformation that Kim Jong-un works so hard to maintain. We have heard, time and again, from North Korean refugees about the indelible impact of real information from the outside world, whether it be defector broadcasts or pirated South Korean TV dramas set in the affluent bustling metropolis of Seoul.

Just last month, I was discussing these issues in Seoul with Thae Yong-ho, the highest ranking North Korean defector. The minister is the former ambassador to the U.K. Many of you read about his defection there in Britain. He is now in Seoul. He emphasized that such knowledge undermines the lie that North Korea is a worker's paradise and that it is the envy of the world.

Increasingly, he says, for 30-some dollars, a village or a family can purchase a device that plays these dramas from South Korea that come in from the porous border with China, and, as a result of that, they learn more. And, frankly, I will say that as a result of the two different organizations of defectors from North Korea who broadcast on shortwave, people are learning more as well. Our problem is that it needs to be broadcast beyond just the area around the border. We need to figure out how to help others hear the truth.

So, today, harnessing the power of information and public expectations inside North Korea is more important than ever. Along with enhanced sanctions on the regime's enablers, this is critical. It is a critical nonmilitary tool because it confronts the growing North Korean threat to our safety with a very different methodology by educating and empowering North Koreans themselves.

This bill, H.R. 2061, does not merely reauthorize activities under the North Korean Human Rights Act, but it enacts important updates to freedom-of-information authorities, to reflect technological advances beyond radio broadcasting, including USB drives, mobile devices, and other very promising tools. It also renews the obligations of the special envoy for North Korean human rights.

Finally, the bill enhances congressional oversight tools to help ensure that our investments stand the best chance of paying dividends in freedom for North Korea, and greater security for the rest of the world will be the result of this.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman emeritus of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, for authoring this bill. I also thank our ranking member, Eliot Engel, for his work on this issue. And I thank the chair and ranking member of our Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee as well, Ted

Yoho and Brad Sherman. The gentlewoman from Florida is tireless in her defense of human rights and has been a legislative leader on North Korea for more than a decade.

I am a proud cosponsor of this excellent bill, which deserves our unanimous support.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Yoho), chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific.

Among a number of amendments that he has contributed to this bill, there is one in particular that I think is very important, and that is increasing the number of tools that can be used here, to include new technologies to North Korea, like USB drives. It is a lot easier for people to watch on USB drives as well as, of course, mobile phones and DVDs.

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

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank our ranking member, Mr. Eliot Engel, also for his work on the original bill.

For a number of years, we have been focused in a bipartisan way, those of us who are concerned about human rights in North Korea. This is the reauthorization, but the original measure was to promote human rights and free information inside North Korea, and to focus on the protection of North Koreans who have fled the country and face a heightened risk of exploitation and human trafficking. We have been able to work on enforcement, but now with reauthorization, there is a chance to update it.

Those updates in H.R. 2061 not only reauthorize the North Korean Human Rights Act, but there are these promising new technological advances to pierce the information darkness, as Mr. Ted Yoho mentioned. That darkness is maintained intentionally by Kim Jong-un's regime. Confronted by a rapidly nuclearizing North Korea, these tools are more important than ever.

Rather than putting all of his energy into menacing the world, as he does with his nuclear program, Kim Jong-un must be confronted with the urgent needs, with the legitimate aspirations of the people of North Korea. There are 120,000 of his people that are in what we call these gulags across North Korea. Without reforms, these individuals are never going to see the light of day, they are never going to be released to freedom.

This critical bipartisan bill deserves our unanimous support.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this measure.

First, I thank our chairman, who always conducts himself in such a bipartisan fashion. I thank him for including everyone and thank him for the work that he does.

I also thank the bill's author, our former chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen from Florida. I am pleased to join her as the Democratic cosponsor of this legislation. She authored an earlier version of this bill, which is a testament to how long she has been working to shine a light on the daily horror of so many living in North Korea and to bring American leadership to bear, to ease their suffering.

We have been focused on North Korea a great deal lately because of the Kim regime's increasingly provocative behavior and our own administration's inconsistent and irresponsible rhetoric.

North Korea poses a great threat to our national security and the security of our friends and allies. We need a smart, coherent approach that combines diplomacy, pressure, and deterrence to halt North Korea's progress in developing nuclear weapons.

At the same time, we cannot lose sight over what the North Korean people are enduring. This is a country where people don't have rights, and anyone who dares speak his or her mind may find themselves subjected to beatings, torture, brutal imprisonment, or even death.

The United States Commission of Inquiry found that Kim Jong-un's regime is very likely committing crimes against humanity.

Mr. Speaker, I visited North Korea twice. When I was there with a few of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle, our North Korean minders were very careful to make sure we only saw what we were supposed to see.

But we could sense that beneath the surface, something was terribly, terribly wrong. First of all, they wouldn't let us go out of Pyongyang; that just out of sight, it was amazing that there were so many people living under the most brutal conditions imaginable and that no one dared shatter the illusion that the North Korean authorities had just created.

When you go into North Korea, it feels like you are stepping back into 1953 Berlin. Everything was gray and dark and drab, and you could just see something was wrong.

We know better. We have seen year after year of disturbing reports and stories from defectors who have told us exactly what life is like for most North Koreans, and we haven't forgotten them.

The law that we are reauthorizing today first became law in 2004. This legislation will preserve funding for American assistance to North Korean refugees, for humanitarian assistance inside the country, as well as information efforts by our government, and to try every means possible to get the message out to regular North Korean people that we are not their enemy.

I will say that I am greatly concerned that the latest iteration of the President's travel ban, which now includes North Korea, sends exactly the wrong message to defectors from that country. By closing our door to them, we reinforce the paranoia that the regime perpetrates. We have to be careful not to get caught in the middle of that.

An earlier version of this law created a senior State Department position to focus on human rights in North Korea. It is a big job, Mr. Speaker, and in recent years, there has been someone to do this important work full time, but it has been reported that the administration plans to combine this position with the Under Secretary for Democracy. I think that would be a mistake.

The Under Secretary position already oversees the bureaus and offices that deal with a huge range of issues from counterterrorism, to refugees, to narcotics, to human trafficking. It is a pretty full agenda, yet the administration on the one hand says North Korean human rights should be combined with that job, and on the other hand has not yet nominated anyone to fill the position.

So I think there is a lot of work to be done on both sides, and that is what we are doing on the Foreign Affairs Committee. We are working together.

This reauthorization reaffirms Congress' view that we should have a senior full-time diplomat dealing with North Korean human rights. I ask that this provision be included once again. I am grateful to Chairman Royce and Chairman Emeritus Ros-Lehtinen that Congress will continue to speak out on the importance of this role.

It is also my view that we need to stop neglecting our diplomacy and get these positions filled. We cannot expect the State Department to deal with these challenges--whether North Korea's nuclear program or North Korea's human rights record--without leadership in place, but I am glad that Congress is continuing to do its job in helping to promote human rights for the North Koreans.

I am, again, grateful to my friend from Florida and the chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, the Kim regime poses a grave threat to global security, and it is critical that the United States move ahead with a coherent strategy to help meet this challenge.

At the same time, the Kim regime's treatment of its own people represents one of the worst human rights situations in the entire world. We cannot lose sight of that human suffering that is going on every day.

For years, the United States has made it a priority to do what we can to help those living under this brutal dictatorship and to assist those who have escaped it. This legislation will ensure that the United States continues this important work in the years ahead.

I want to say that Chairman Royce has made it a mark of his to travel the region, to speak with South Korea, to speak with the leaders in Asia. I am pleased that we are well represented when he goes there and lets the regimes know that we in Congress have a lot of things to say and that we want to stand by our allies and let North

Korea understand that they cannot push anybody around.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for having visited Korea with him and for all the things he does in Asia. I think the committee is united in supporting this legislation. We have to speak out. We have to protect the North Korean people who have no protection from a brutal dictator and a regime that treats them like they are worthless.

I urge Members to support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to support H.R. 2061, the North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act of 2017. This is an important piece of legislation and I am pleased to support it.

H.R. 2061 reinstates the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004, which was originally designed to address the ``deplorable human rights conditions'' for North Koreans, as well as support various human rights groups and provide solutions toward permanent resettlement for North Korean refugees. Since 2004, the United States has resettled 244 North Korean refugees, making it the largest refugee resettlement program in the world. However, Congress has found that human rights conditions still have not improved as refugees remain at risk of losing their lives. As Americans, we have an enduring bipartisan interest to promote freedom for human rights, the transparency of human rights, and the importance of refugee protection. As members of Congress, we should work with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees to expedite the resettlement of refugees, to increase our diplomatic efforts to cooperate with neighboring countries, and to urge China to work with us to help tackle the status of North Korean refugees within their territory.

I have seen, firsthand, the positive impact that refugees have had on my community. Clarkston, a city within my district, has received over 40,000 refugees over the past 25 years and almost 1,500 within the past year. These refugees have contributed to our economy and democracy.

Clarkston embodies the American spirit, providing a chance to these individuals who left everything behind in the hopes of finding a better life here in America. I am proud of the hope and opportunity of what Clarkston stands for, and that is why I am pleased to support H.R. 2061.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2061, the North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act of 2017. I commend Chairman Emeritus Ros- Lehtinen for leading this reauthorization effort, and Chairman Royce and my colleagues on the Foreign Affairs Committee for their support of this legislation.

The horrific human rights abuses committed by Kim Jong-un are an integral part of his power structure. Countering these unspeakable crimes, however we can, is both a moral imperative and a sound strategy.

As amended, H.R. 2061 includes my Distribution and Promotion of Rights and Knowledge Act, which will improve U.S. efforts to broadcast outside information into North Korea, weakening Kim Jong-un's regime by eroding his stranglehold on information. It will provide light to the North Koreans; not just light to read by, but shine light on those innate basic beliefs of liberty and freedom.

Specifically, this language updates the means in which information can be disseminated, helping to find new ways to end the Kim regime's monopoly on information.

The two bills are natural partners and, together, they can meaningfully advance human rights and free flow of information in North Korea.

Mr. Speaker, I again thank the chairman for yielding.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 2061 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Rubio amendment at the desk be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.