N. Korea Human Rights Bill May Have Passed in House

[Update: I can’t confirm the final outcome, but I’m led to believe that the vote on these bills was put off at the last minute.]

Someone supplied me (thanks) with this press release from Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s office, dated yesterday:

(WASHINGTON) ““ The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to approve two North Korea-related bills today coauthored by U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), including an initiative to improve procedures for resettling refugees and funding programs to promote human rights. Separate legislation is also expected to pass that clarifies and reinforces the conditions governing North Korea’s potential removal from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism and requires the Administration to report in detail on its verification plans.

Drafted by Ros-Lehtinen, Ranking Member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and co-sponsored by Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-CA), the North Korea Human Rights Reauthorization Act (H.R. 5834) requires the appointment of a full-time envoy to work on North Korean human rights issues, requires a report from the Broadcasting Board of Governors on efforts to expand U.S. broadcasting to North Korea, and increases to $4 million U.S. funding for human rights and democracy programs.

A separate Ros-Lehtinen provision in the Security Assistance and Arms Export Control Reform Act (H.R. 5916) requires that the North Korean regime take verifiable actions to satisfy existing statutory and other requirements, such as ceasing to provide nuclear assistance to countries such as Syria and Iran, before it can be removed from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism.

“We must ensure that any concession granted to the regime is consistent with U.S. law and our vital national interests,” Ros-Lehtinen said.

The Ros-Lehtinen amendment also contains language that requires the State Department to submit a report to the Committee describing the measures the U.S. will use to verify North Korea’s declaration regarding its nuclear facilities. This report must include a description of any formal or informal agreements and understandings the U.S. and the North Korean regime have reached regarding verification, as well as any disagreement expressed by North Korea.

“Unless an agreement with North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons programs is verifiable and covers all of the regime’s nuclear activities, the world can have no confidence that the threat has been effectively addressed,” she added.

“The regime in Pyongyang ranks among the most cruel and inhumane in the world” said Ros-Lehtinen. “While Kim Jong Il tightens his grip on fundamental liberties and dodges basic questions on his nuclear program, his regime is unable to provide basic goods or services to its citizens, who continue to languish in starvation,” she added.

The human rights bill urges the State Department to improve the screening, processing, and resettlement of North Korean refugees in the United States.

“The United States has resettled about 150,000 refugees since Congress passed the original North Korean Human Rights Act in 2004, and yet fewer than 50 have come from North Korea,” said Ros-Lehtinen. “Those who attempt to escape North Korea’s vile conditions risk torture and death; we must do better in our quest to provide these refugees with a save haven,” she added.
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That’s remarkable when you consider that Ros-Lehtinen is the Republican (read: minority) leader of a Committee going against her own President. In their last years in the majority, the Republicans didn’t accomplish anything this significant, even when the odds were with them. And for whatever reason, the Democratic Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee is not only letting these bills through his Committee, he’s co-sponsoring them. He deserves a large share of the credit.