The House voted unanimously Monday to reauthorize a 2004 North Korea human rights law, adding to the measure new provisions aimed at spreading uncensored information throughout the country.
“This bill does not merely re-authorize activities under the activities under the North Korean Human Rights Act,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., said Monday. “It enacts important updates of freedom of information to reflect technological advances beyond radio broadcasting.”
The bipartisan bill follows increasingly threatening and provocative action by the North Koreans that also prompted new sanctions announced by President Trump aimed at those who conduct trade with North Korea.
The human rights legislation passed Monday would help spread information to the North Korean citizens, said Foreign Affairs ranking member Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., who has visited the country.
“This is a country where people don’t have rights and anyone who dares speak his or her mind may find themselves subjected to beatings, torture, brutal imprisonment or even death.”
Royce said the legislation is strategic because North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un maintains control of the citizenry by depriving them of information from outside the country.
“We have heard time and again from North Korean refugees about the indelible impact of real information from the outside world, whether it be defected broadcasts or pirated South Korean TV dramas set in the affluent bustling metropolis of Seoul,” Royce said.
