On October 27, the House International Relations Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific and the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations held a joint oversight hearing on implementation of the North Korean Human Rights Act (P.L. 108-333). The law authorizes up to $20 million annually for assistance to North Korean refugees; asserts that North Koreans are eligible for U.S. refugee status; instructs the State Department to facilitate the submission of applications by North Koreans seeking protection as refugees; and calls for a special envoy to promote human rights in North Korea (see The Source, 10/08/04). Rep. Christopher Smith (R-NJ), chair of the subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations, expressed continued concern that “the administration was not implementing the legislation with the same resolve with which Congress passed it.” He explained that according to the State Department, “between 80 and 90 percent of the refugees from North Korea, especially women and young children, become victims of trafficking in China. We know that women and girls are forced into prostitution, or sold into so-called ‘marriages’ that are frequently abusive. Some escape only to be captured and re-sold multiple times.” To make matters worse, “the government of China hunts down North Koreans and forcibly returns them into the hands of the brutal North Korean regime. Of those returnees, most are imprisoned, many are tortured, and some are executed. Pregnant prisoners are routinely beaten or coerced into aborting their unborn children, as the regime also considers them to be political criminals.”
Speaking to what he sees as an “apparent inability to implement the North Korean Human Rights Act,” Rep. Smith added, “It is simply shameful that the U.S. still has not settled a single North Korean refugee since the Act’s passage.”
The subcommittees heard emotional testimony from North Korean victims of trafficking. Soon-Hee Ma and Kyeong-Sook Cha traveled to China in search of their older daughters who had left North Korea for China in search of better jobs. Both women and their daughters were subsequently sold into domestic and sexual servitude.
Kyeong-Sook Cha tearfully spoke about being approached by a man who offered to buy back her daughter if she agreed to work as his servant. She explained that “he bought back my daughter for $400, and we worked for him as servants at his house. We worked on his farm during the day, and slept in [the] cow’s stable at night. We literally lived like animals and lived with animals. I was happy though, that I [was] able to be with my daughter.” Their hardship continued when they were again kidnapped by human traffickers. They were “sold to some place in Inner Mongolia for $1,200.” After a raid by the Chinese police, they were captured and sent back to North Korea where they were placed in a detention center. Detailing some of the atrocities she witnessed there, Ms. Cha said, “There was a pregnant woman among us. They said she was pregnant with a Chinese seed, and kicked [her] in the stomach. Another woman was holding a two-month old baby. They said the baby was also a Chinese seed, and beat him on the head with a book. Everybody screamed.” After six years of anguish, Ms. Cha and her daughters were reunited and managed to escape to South Korea in 2003.
Also testifying was human rights activist Timothy Peters, founder of Helping Hands Korea. He stated, “In my opinion, the U.S. State Department is seriously out of step with the spirit and the letter of the North Korean Human Rights Act, specifically when one of its intents is to facilitate refugee applications at U.S. diplomatic missions abroad.” He recounted an incident involving a North Korean female trafficking victim whom he took to the U.S. embassy in China. “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. I thought to myself, ‘is this the State Department’s implementation of the North Korean Human Rights Act?’”
