Sec. 2. Findings
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Congress finds the following: North Korean negotiators in the Six-Party diplomatic process did not act in good faith by their refusal to agree to a transparent verification process for denuclearization consistent with international standards , including provisions for nuclear sampling, following North Korea’s removal on October 11, 2008, from the list of state sponsors of terrorism maintained by the Department of State. International press reports indicate that North Korea has continued to provide support to Iran in the areas of missile technology and nuclear development and has provided Iran’s surrogates, Hezbollah and Hamas, with both missile technology and training in tunneling techniques with which to attack Israel, an ally of the United States.
International press reports indicate that North Korea was engaged for a number of years in assistance to Syria in the construction of a nuclear reactor in the Syrian desert which was destroyed in a strike by Israeli forces on September 6, 2007. North Korean negotiators continue to refuse to address in a humane and sincere manner the issue of the abduction of civilians of Japan and the Republic of Korea, both allies of the United States, as well as the abductions of citizens from a number of other countries, including France, Lebanon, Romania, and Thailand.
Defectors coming out of North Korea have provided testimony that United States permanent resident, Reverend Kim Dong-shik, the spouse and father of United States citizens, was tortured and murdered inside North Korea after his abduction by Pyongyang’s agents on the Chinese border in January 2000 and that his remains are currently being held at a military facility inside North Korea. Congress authoritatively expressed its view, in section 202(b)(2) of the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 ( Public Law 108–333 ; 22 U.S.C. 7832(b)(2) ) that United States nonhumanitarian assistance to North Korea shall be contingent on North Korea’s substantial progress on human rights improvements, release of and accounting for abductees, family reunification, reform of North Korea’s labor camp system, and the decriminalization of political expression, none of which has occurred.
Congress further authoritatively expressed its view, in section 2 of the North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act of 2008 ( Public Law 110–346 ) that human rights and humanitarian conditions inside North Korea are deplorable and that North Korean refugees remain acutely vulnerable . Congress has determined that any missile test or launch conducted by North Korea would be in direct violation of United Nations Security Council resolution 1695, adopted on July 16, 2006, which condemns the multiple launches by the DPRK (North Korea) of ballistic missiles on July 5 2006 local time , and United Nations Security Council Resolution 1718, adopted on October 9, 2006, which demands that the DPRK (North Korea) not conduct any further nuclear test or launch of a ballistic missile and decides that the DPRK shall suspend all activities related to its ballistic missile programme and in this context re-establish its pre-existing commitments to a moratorium on missile launching , and further determines that the resulting sanctions imposed under such resolution 1718 would again come into full effect following a missile test or launch.
Congress has further determined that a return by North Korea to the Six-Party diplomatic process following any missile test or launch by Pyongyang must include a firm and transparent commitment to the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of all of North Korea’s nuclear programs, including those derived both from plutonium as well as highly enriched uranium. Japanese press reports have indicated that a delegation of approximately fifteen Iranian missile experts arrived in North Korea in March 2009 to help Pyongyang prepare for a rocket launch , including senior officials with the Iranian rocket and satellite producer Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group, and that they brought with them a letter from their President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il stressing the importance of cooperating on space technology.
North Korea, in defiance of the international community’s efforts to end nuclear proliferation and in violation of its international obligations, conducted a second underground nuclear test on May 25, 2009 (local time), in violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1718, which resulted in the passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1874 on June 12, 2009, which imposed additional sanctions and inspection requirements with regard to North Korea. North Korea, according to Western press reports, transshipped missile parts, used to run Iran’s solid fuel ballistic missile program, to Tehran via Air Iran flights which landed in Beijing, China in 2007.
Press reports in March 2011 indicated that opposition forces in Libya, when they took positions from Qaddafi forces, discovered North Korean weapons caches, including rockets and anti-aircraft guns, unpacked from crates labeled “bulldozer parts,” which would represent a clear violation of United Nations sanctions. On August 16, 2012, the President signed into law the Ambassador James R. Lilley and Congressman Stephen J. Solarz North Korea Human Rights Reauthorization Act of 2012 ( Public Law 112–172 ).
Congress further authoritatively expressed its view in section 2 of Public Law 112–172 that although the transition to the leadership of Kim Jong-Un after the death of Kim Jong-Il has introduced new uncertainties and possibilities, the fundamental human rights and humanitarian conditions inside North Korea remain deplorable, North Korean refugees remain acutely vulnerable, and the findings in the 2004 Act and 2008 Reauthorization remain substantially accurate today. . Notwithstanding the succession of Kim Jong-Un as supreme leader of North Korea following the death of his father in December 2011, Pyongyang has continued a policy of horrendous human rights violations, including the issuance of new shoot to kill orders for refugees attempting to cross the border into China and an increased reliance on public executions to intimidate the North Korean populace.
The new Kim Jong-Un regime also displayed duplicity in its negotiations with the United States and other Six-Party partners by launching a missile in April 2012 in direct violation of its Leap Day Agreement to carry out a moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests. Pyongyang defied the international community and relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions by launching a long-range missile on December 12, 2012, resulting in the unanimous passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2087 on January 22, 2013.
The regime in Pyongyang further defied the international community and relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions by conducting a nuclear test on February 12, 2013. According to the United States Geological Survey, seismic activity was detected in North Korea with an earthquake measuring 4.9 magnitude, larger than the 2006 and 2009 explosions, and the epicenter of the quake was close to a North Korean nuclear test site.
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- Pub. L. 108-333
- Pub. L. 110-346
- Pub. L. 112-172
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