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A group of nine U.S. senators and congressmen have written to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice demanding full implementation of their country¡¯s North Korean Human Rights Act, including asylum for North Korean refugees in America.
The signatories numbered prominent North Korea hawks among them like the chairman of the House International Relations Committee Henry Hyde and James Leach, the chairman of its Asia subcommittee. Senators Sam Brownback, Evan Bayh and Representatives Frank Wolf, Tom Lantos, Christopher Smith, Eni Faleomavaega and Joseph Pitts also put their name to Wednesday¡¯s letter.
The group urged a swift implementation of the 2004 act, expressing concern that even though it allocates annual aid of US$24 million for campaigns to improve human rights conditions in the North, the 2007 budget does not reflect this and there has yet to be a single case where a North Korean defector is granted asylum under the bill.
The letter calls on the U.S. government to act immediately on a provision to offer shelter to North Korean refugees as it did to thousands of Vietnamese ¡°boat people¡± in the 1970s. The signatories want Washington to press China to stop repatriating North Korean refugees when Chinese president Chinese President Hu Jintao visits the U.S.
Meanwhile, an advisor to International Relations Committee, Doug Anderson, told a seminar hosted by the Institute for Corean-American Studies that Congress will consider a revision of the act if Washington continues to drag its feet in admitting North Korean refugees. It could designate refugees ¡°Priority 2¡±, which would offer them group exile and make it easier for them to seek asylum. The status would eliminate the need for defectors to be given refugee status by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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