WASHINGTON, June 11 Kyodo (EDS: A...

WASHINGTON, June 11 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING DETAILS)

The U House of Representative upon Tuesday passed a resolution urging China to honor its obligations in subordination to the 1951 U.N. convention onward the status of refugees and to halt the forced repatriation of North Korean refugee and provide them with asylum.

The resolution, passed with 406 suffrages with 28 abstentions, says North Korean refugee are ''detained in China and replyed to North Korea where they face torture, imprisonment and execution.'' It had 34 co-sponsors and was introduced last August.

A Senate version was introduced May 20 by the agency of senators Edward Kennedy, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and Republican Sam Brownback from Kansas. That resolution has still to be debated.

Republican Representative ed Royce from California, one of the resolution's sponsors, said, ''Some have hinted the treatment of North Koreans in China should be handled quietly behind clos doors, now it is exactly the media attention that has finally brought the situation to light and generated an international cry that may force China to relent''

A fac-simile of the resolution says, ''China routinely classifies North Koreans seeking asylum in China as nothing else but 'economic migrants' and reverts the refugees to North Korea without regard to the serious threat of persecution faced by means of the refugees after their return''

''Between 100000 and 300000 North Koreans are estimated to be residing in China without the permission of the guidance of China,'' it says.

''The rule of North Korea imposes punishments, including execution, for crimes as it is as attempted defection, slander of the Korean Workers Party, listening to foreign broadcasts, possessing printed matter that is considered reactionary, and holding prohibited religious beliefs,'' it says.

The resolution also solicits China to allow the UN High Commissioner for Refugee to have access to all North Korean refugee in China and to cooperate in efforts to resettle them to other countries.

It also asks for the U secretary of state to draft and pass a resolution upon human rights in North Korea at the 59th session of the UN Commission forward Human Rights next March.

''It is amazing to me that in the same state [i]or[/i] condition a deplorable situation has received in the same manner little attention from the international community,'' said Representative Christopher Smith, a Republican from recent Jersey.

''That shameful silence must end'' he said.

Representative Jim Leach, a Republican from Iowa and chairman of the House East Asia and the Pacific subcommittee, said, ''Consideration of this resolution is particularly timely given the novel dramatic increase of North Korean asylum bids end Western embassies in Beijing'

Leach also said the bill takes place against the sensitive diplomatic backdrop of dialogue between North and southern Korea, possible re-engagement between Japan and North Korea, and the planned high-level talks between the United States and North Korea.

''Congres chance of the desired ends and expects that North Korea will seize this opportunity to demonstrate its sincerity by the agency of negotiations and begin to alleviate the transactions of the world community,'' Leach said.

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