Posted on 05/24/2005 9:29:26 PM PDT by HAL9000
SEOUL, May 25 (Yonhap) -- A coalition of U.S. human rights groups is pushing a law bill that calls for hefty punitive tariffs on Chinese imports unless Beijing stops repatriating North Koreans fleeing their oppressive communist regime, a U.S. scholar said Wednesday."China should not have a cost-free policy of supporting Kim Jong-il," Michael Horowitz, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, told the Yonhap News Agency by telephone from Washington. "If they continue to do so, they will have to pay an increasingly heavy price in terms of relations with the U.S."
Horowitz accused China of backing North Korea's dictatorship and routinely sending its escapees back to their impoverished homeland where they are certain to face imprisonment, torture and other harsh punishment.
Horowitz said that the draft bill, a copy of which has been obtained by Yonhap, is being debated and actively considered by the same U.S. conservative advocacy groups that had successfully pushed a separate North Korean human rights bill through the Congress late last year.
The "North Korean Human Rights Act 2004," put into effect early this year, authorizes the U.S. government to spend up to US$24 million annually during the 2005-2008 period mainly to help North Koreans escaping their communist homeland.
The U.S. draft bill, called the "Scoop Jackson National Security and Freedom Act," comes as the United States is taking an increasingly critical stand on North Korea over its nuclear ambitions and human rights problems.
The draft bill is named after the late Democratic senator, Henry Jackson, who is a hero to many Americans on all sides of the political spectrum for his fight for human rights in the former Soviet Union.
He authored the Jackson-Vanik legislation in 1974 which imposed trade sanctions on Moscow because of its treatment of would-be Jewish refugees from the former Soviet Union. Sanctions forced Moscow to allow the migration of Jewish dissidents.
As in the case with the former Soviet Union, the draft bill dictates the U.S. government to impose a tariff of 27.5 percent on all Chinese imports unless significant improvement is made on Beijing's handling of the refugee issue within 180 days from the date of its enactment by the U.S. Congress.
The bill, if adopted, is certain to strain Washington-Beijing relations. China recognizes North Korean escapees in its territory only as economic migrants, not refugees, and blocks U.N. access to them.
Horowitz said the draft bill is one of many vehicles being considered by the coalition to further the idea that China should no longer enjoy a cost-free relationship with U.S. as long as it continues to serve as the prime financial and political supporter of the North's leader, Kim Jong-il.
The U.S. move is also certain to anger North Korea and may make it difficult to help resolve the ongoing tension over the communist country's nuclear weapons development through dialogue.
Citing U.S. President George W. Bush's mantra of the expansion of democracy and freedom across the world, the draft bill says the advancement of human rights in North Korea is "the clearest and most powerful means of ending the strategic threat posed by the communist regime."
The draft bill gives some leeway for the U.S. president to delay the imposition of the tariffs for an additional 180 days if China improves its treatment of North Korean refugees and for an additional 12 months if China complies with the U.S. request for better treatment of refugees at the end of the 180-day period.
Describing the draft bill as the "subject of serious discussions" on Capital Hill, Horowitz warned China not to support Kim Jong-il any longer.
"One point on which everyone increasingly agrees is that China must be held accountable for human rights violations of Pyongyang regime," he said. "The road to reform in Pyongyang goes through Beijing."
"China could produce regime transformation in 15 minutes if it wants to but up to now, China has not yet paid a price in terms of its relations with the U.S for supporting Kim Jong-il's gulags, torture and gas chambers. It is our intention more and more to force China to choose between full support for Kim Jong-il or good relations with the U.S. We are going to work very hard to say that China can't have both."
The draft bill "authorizes appropriate action" by the U.S. government if China "interferes with the flow of North Korean refugees, causes unlawful repatriation of North Korean refugees, and impedes access by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to North Korean refugees."
North Korea has abysmal human rights records. A wide body of North Korean escapees testify that the country is holding as many as 200,000 political prisoners.
In his latest personal attack on the North's leader, Bush called him a "tyrant" and a "dangerous man" who starves his 23 million people. North Korea countered by vilifying Bush as a "hooligan" and a "philistine."
By some accounts, more than 300,000 North Korean escapees are hiding in China, looking for a chance to defect to South Korea. A U.S. State Department report released in February put the number at between 30,000 and 50,000.
Nearly 6,500 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the Korean War ended in 1953, including 1,894 in 2004 alone. More than 160 North Koreans sought asylum in South Korea in the first two months of this year, the latest figure available.
Interesting -- but someone might ask the author about when did 'advocacy groups' and 'human rights groups' start setting U.S. foreign policy ??? This issue has a ways to go yet --- (/humor)
Ping.
It doesn't matter what I think, the 100 sold out SOBs in the senate will ignore us and country, and vote for the highest bidder.
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