The U.S. Congress once again failed to pass a bipartisan bill to reauthorize the North Korean Human Rights Act, or NKHRA, leaving a hole for the future of the measure originally adopted by Congress and signed by President George W. Bush in 2004. A disappointing picture was painted, to be sure. The United States continues to promote basic freedoms of speech, press, and religion in North Korea.
Last Friday, Congress ended its 118th session at midnight without Senate approval to extend the NKHRA, which expires at the end of September 2022.
A bill to extend the NKHRA was not even brought up in the Senate this year, as lawmakers were more focused on other issues, including preventing a government shutdown.
The bill called for measures such as reuniting Korean Americans with their families in North Korea, appointing a special envoy for North Korean human rights issues, and supporting U.S. broadcast efforts in North Korea.
The 119th U.S. Congress begins next year, and the NKHRA reauthorization bill will have to be reintroduced in the new session and again go through the process of discussion, deliberation, changes, and ultimately voting.
Lawmakers vow to try again
This is the first time since the NKHRA became law that the reassessment bill has remained dormant for more than two years. Congress re-approved the measure three times, in 2008, 2012, and 2018.
Lawmakers vowed to work toward re-enactment of the NKHRA during the next congressional session.
Representative Young Kim, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Indo-Pacific, said she was “extremely disappointed that the Senate failed to take up the North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act.” The House had passed the bill last month.
“Kim Jong Un is committing gross human rights abuses against his own people as he expands his nuclear arsenal, and the Senate is turning a blind eye to North Korean aggression by failing to pass this bill,” Kim said in an email statement to VOA Korean. She is remaining silent.” monday.
“This remains my top priority,” he stressed. “I will continue to fight to get it to the finish line in confronting North Korea and promoting American leadership and values around the world.”
The office of Representative Ami Bera, ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Indo-Pacific, said in an email statement to VOA Korean that Bera “looks forward to working with her Senate colleagues to pass this bipartisan legislation in the 119th Congress Are.” ,
Kim and Bera led the bill in the House, while Senators Marco Rubio and Tim Kaine introduced the Senate version of the bill.
VOA Korean contacted Rubio and Kaine’s offices for comment but did not receive a reply.
VOA Korean also sought comment from North Korea’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, but received no response.
competing priorities
Human rights experts in Washington said getting the NKHRA passed in Congress is challenging because North Korean human rights would have to compete with other more pressing issues.
“It’s very difficult to get people to focus on what’s going on when you’re competing with Gaza and Ukraine,” said Robert King, who has served as special envoy for North Korea human rights issues at the US State Department since November 2009. That’s what’s happening.” Till January 2017.
“The effort continues, and people are still concerned, and people still reflect the idea that North Korea needs to make progress on human rights, but there is a lot of competition out there. There are also many other issues and concerns that are important ” King told VOA Korean by phone on Tuesday, adding that he sees no doubt among US lawmakers about the effectiveness of the NKHRA.
Greg Scarlatoui, president of the Washington-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, told VOA Korean in a Zoom interview on Tuesday that the NKHRA’s two-year absence “is a matter of prioritizing other crises.”
Skarlatoui stressed that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s pursuit of absolute power and nuclear weapons has come at the expense of the human rights of the North Korean people.
“There is a clear connection between the human rights violations North Korea poses to the world, by torturing and exploiting its own people at home and abroad,” he said.
Skarlatoui also pointed out that the recent deployment of North Korean troops to Russia is clear evidence of the Kim regime’s human rights violations.
“Now, as incredible as it may have seemed two years ago, this is a security threat to Europe, so this is a very urgent issue for Congress,” he said.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday there are signs North Korea is preparing to send more troops and weapons to support Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine. According to South Korea, the United States and Ukraine, North Korea has so far sent about 12,000 troops to Russia.
North Korean defectors say Pyongyang may have kept that country’s troop deployment a secret from its own people, including the soldiers’ families.
A State Department spokesperson declined to comment in response to VOA Korean’s inquiry about Congress’s failure to pass the bill.
“As a general matter, we do not comment on pending legislation,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
However, the State Department says North Korea is one of the world’s most repressive regimes.
“DPRK [North Korea] One of the most repressive authoritarian states in the world. After North Korea criticized the US in its annual Universal Periodic Review, a State Department spokesperson said in an email statement to VOA Korean on October 15, “its human rights situation is disappointing.” Of its human rights record.