Like Pondwater: A Capitol Hill Progress Report on the North Korean Human Rights Act

Since I’ve been experiencing some of the busiest weeks in my professional life lately, I haven’t been able to sneak out of the office to attend hearings, but there are two interesting highlights to report. The first is the latest House hearing, which took place October 27th, covering the U.S. government’s implementation of the N.K. Human Rights Act. Here is a link to all of the testimony, which I freely admit I haven’t the time to review in full. Still, implentation is clearly lacking, and the last refuge of the Korean left is to point to the United States and call us hypocrites.

The Rev. Tim Peters reports that embassies–both American and South Korean–are still turning refugees away as of very recently, which is inexcusable. Here is a story he tells of two sisters he tried to help escape from the North:

During the summer, just as I was about to depart for China, I was given an update of a most dire situation of a 17-year old North Korean girl and her sister, who had been hiding in a shelter after wading across the Tumen River. For the teenagers, this had been a second hazardous crossing. The first exodus with their parents had taken place, to the best of our knowledge, in late 2004. The girls’ father had been an army officer in the military of the DPRK. Tragically, the entire family of four had been caught, as so many refugees are, by the Chinese authorities and quickly repatriated. It should come as no surprise that girls’ father, upon his return, was swiftly executed for betrayal of the Fatherland. The army officer’s wife was sent to a politcal prison camp. In the wake of these extraordinary personal tragedies, the two teen daughters demonstrated amazing resourcefulness and somehow managed to make a furtive second crossing into China. Shortly thereafter, a fellow activist brought their plight to my attention. On the very morning that was I was to leave for China, I was told that the younger, 14 year-old sister had wandered away from the shelter where she stayed with her older sister, and was picked up by the Chinesepolice.

And how did our embassy represent the values of the United States abroad?

Thanks to the arrangement of another activist here in the US, I was able to meet with US embassy officials in Beijing during that visit. I shared my urgent and grave concerns for the safety and fragile psychological state of the 17 year-old North Korean girl, who had so recently lost her father to a firing squad, her mother to the gulag and her sister to a Chinese police sweep. There was no question that there was sympathy in the room among those that were in the meeting. I proceeded to ask if there was any way that the US embassy could help in this extraordinary emergency. Might it be possible, for example, to secretly bring the teen under the protection of the US by slipping her into an embassy vehicle? Then I was startled by the response of one of the political officers of the embassy. I felt as though he took on almost a scolding attitude towards me, cautioning me against what he seemed to perceive as rash activities by North Korean human rights activists. In response to my pointed request for direct assistance for the psychologically shell-shocked teenager, the political officer replied that there was nothing that could be done by the embassy, except that an inquiry could me made with Chinese officials as a way to prevent the repatriation of the younger sister. I was then urged to seek out the assistance of the UNHCR office in Beijing. I thought to myself, “Is this the State Department’simplementation of the North Korean Human Rights Act?”

Emphasis mine, and I’d add that I know Tim Peters well enough to say that his word is coin of the realm. At his request, I’m also going to publicize one more part of this:

Fellow American, Pastor Phillip Jun Buck, aged 68, was detained in May of this year in his courageous work of sheltering and protecting North Korean refugees. I am mentioning Pastor Buck in part because I have the privilege of knowing him personally and having the honor of being among the supporters of his refugee shelters in recent years. Phillip Buck would sometimes appear unannounced at our
weekly Catacomb meetings in Seoul and share uplifting testimonies from his refugee
shelters in China. Due to an auto accident during his years as a missionary in Russia, he suffers from sleep disorders that pose particular hardships in prison conditions in China. I would ask, Mr. Chairman and Committee Members, that just as you exerted such swift and critical influence with the Chinese government that resulted in the release of Chun Ki Won in August of 2002, that you would give equal attention and commitment to the unjust and harsh imprisonment of fellow American Pastor Phillip Jun Buck. His case is particularly urgent as the bitterly cold northeastern China winter is almost upon us and our experience with other detainees suggests that his prison cell will be unheated in temperatures that will plunge many degrees below zero.

Do read the rest of his testimony. Also, Kelu Chao and Daniel Southerland testified on the progress of broadcasting into North Korea.

Elsewhere in the U.S. government, we encounter what appears to be a more fundamental problem. Have a look at this recent exchange from a hearing on religious freedom:

John Hanford, the U.S. envoy for international religious freedom:

QUESTION: Many Korean-American missionaries were kidnapped by North Korea. They are U.S. citizens. They are still in prison. Does the United States have any action to press North Korea to get them out?

HANFORD: Excuse me. You’re saying there are American missionaries who are in prison?

QUESTION: No, Korean-American, which are U.S. citizens.

HANFORD: Who are in prison?

QUESTION: Yes.

HANFORD: In North Korea?

QUESTION: Yes.

HANFORD: OK. We work various channels through our dialogue with North Korea. The six-party talks — there are many issues that are on the table right now.

Certainly human rights is a very serious one. And religious freedom is a very serious one. We have received reports, particularly from people that have crossed over the border, of what some people are experiencing in North Korea.

And some of these reports are chilling in terms of arrests and torture and imprisonment; large numbers of people of faith in prison camps in North Korea.

I’m not prepared to comment on individuals at this point. But this is one of the greatest concerns we have as we hope for a North Korea, in the not too distant future, which honors all human rights.

This is a passion that you sense on Capitol Hill, of course, and it’s the passion of this president and this secretary. We’re pleased there are a number of other countries that are joining with us in this.

QUESTION: Sir, are you aware of reports that there are American missionaries imprisoned in North Korea?

HANFORD: I’m not aware of that, to be honest with you. Now, that doesn’t mean that it could not be true. But I don’t have names of American citizens who are being held in North Korea.

There are Koreans who cross over into China and then cross back into North Korea, sometimes with great courage and sometimes at great cost. In some cases, they are forced back.

QUESTION: His name is Kim Dong Shik, who is living in California. He is a U.S. citizen, a Korean-American.

HANFORD: Well, I’d be grateful if you would pass that on to me or members of my staff who are here. I have lived in South Korea, and it’s an interesting situation that…

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: … talked with one of relatives of Kim Dong Shik. He lost weight. He used (inaudible) 105 pounds. Right now 38 pounds in prison…

HANFORD: Well, having spoken with people who have escaped from prison, as hard as that is to believe, I can believe it.

There was a day when religious practice was so widespread in North Korea that it was called — Pyongyang was called the Jerusalem of the East. But that changed a great deal as a result of the war, tragically. And I’ll welcome your passing on that information.

If you want to know more about Rev. Kim Dong Shik and how concerned the U.S. Congress is about his situation, look here.