Many of the human rights abuses in North Korea are all too familiar to members of this Committee, but certain points bear repeating. There are an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 North Koreans in a vast network of political concentration camps. The rights of free speech, worship, assembly, press, fair trial and emigration are ignored. The regime conducts mandatory political indoctrination, attempts to control all information, and supports a cult of personality around Kim Jong Il that is reminiscent of the worst dictators of the 20th century. . . .

The North Korean government also has grossly negligent policies that exact a shocking humanitarian toll and put its population at risk of mass starvation. The state’s highly centralized economy fails each year to produce even enough food for the country to subsist. Nonetheless, we believe the regime could feed its population if it wanted, but instead squanders revenue and foreign assistance on a massive military, weapons development and a small but pampered elite.