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News Articles
Lawmakers Frustrated With Implementation of N.K. Refugee Act
By FOSTER KLUG, Associated Press Writer
| [12.09.2005, 06:43 AM]
(WASHINGTON) U.S. lawmakers from both political parties are
expressing frustration over the State Department's lack of
action on a law meant to help refugees from North Korea settle
in the United States.
In a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, 10 lawmakers
said no North Koreans had been offered asylum since President
George W. Bush signed the North Korean Human Rights Act into law
in October 2004. Part of the act specifies that the State
Department make it easier for North Koreans to apply for refugee
status.
"It's our view that the numbers speak for themselves," Rep. Jim
Leach, the Republican chairman of the House subcommittee on
Asia, said in an interview Thursday. "We believe State ought to
be galvanized."
Another of the lawmakers, Rep. Chris Smith, spoke Thursday of an
apparent reluctance by the State Department to tackle the
problem.
"It's time for some results and for an action plan," Smith,
Republican chairman of the House International Relations
subcommittee on global human rights, said in an interview.
The lawmakers also expressed alarm that the president apparently
included no money for the act in his most recent budget request.
The act authorized $20 million (?16.7 million) to help North
Koreans outside their homeland; $2 million (?1.7 million) to
support human rights, democracy and economic reform in North
Korea; and $2 million (?1.7 million) to help broadcast
information into North Korea.
The State Department had no immediate comment on the letter, but
Rice told Congress last week at a hearing that her office was
reviewing its policies "to see if we can find a way to
participate in the refugee activities."
The letter, citing congressional testimony by humanitarian
workers, said "some State Department employees at our own
embassies in China, Vietnam and Thailand have actually refused
to assist North Korean refugees who were at terrible risk."
In October, Timothy Peters, the founder of Helping Hands Korea,
said at a hearing that U.S. Embassy officials in Beijing
rebuffed him when he tried to arrange help for a 17-year-old
North Korean refugee.
"I thought to myself, `Is this the State Department's
implementation of the North Korean Human Rights Act?'" he said.
The letter also demanded that the United States urge China to
stop what lawmakers said were efforts to send North Korean
refugees back to their homeland and to jail humanitarian
workers.
They said they hoped Bush would raise the issue with Chinese
President Hu Jintao when he visits the United States in April.
The letter was signed by eight members of the House of
Representatives, including Republicans Henry Hyde and Frank
Wolf; Democrats Tom Lantos and Eni F.H. Faleomavaega; and by
Republican Sen. Sam Brownback and Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh.
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