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House Bill to Combat Human Rights Abuses in North Korea

Human Rights Abuses in North Korea
The Kim regime has continued to inflict disturbing human rights abuses in North Korea on its people. As a result, to help keep America as well as innocent citizens of North Korea safe, the House has voted unanimously on a critical and bipartisan North Korea human rights bill.

According to Newsweek, North Korea’s authoritarian regime has “snatched” teenagers out of their schools to be Kim Jong-un’s apparent sex slaves, forces members of the country’s upper class to watch executions and its leaders are perfectly content to eat expensive foods while the rest of his people subsist on grass.

Reuters recently reported that executions are often carried out in prison camps to instill fear and intimation among prison inmates that are contemplating an escape attempt. Public executions are carried out for minor crimes and distribution of South Korean media can also lead to execution.

According to NK Daily, a person in North Korea can be sentenced to death for communicating with the outside world, and a minimum of ten years of reeducation is the punishment for listening to South Korean media or another foreign radio.

The bill to combat human rights abuses in North Korea is a reauthorization of a 2004 North Korea human rights law that will add to the measure of new provisions aimed at spreading uncensored information throughout the country to inform the citizens of North Korea what is happening in the outside world. It will enact important snippets of updates that have to do with freedom and technological advances that are beyond radio broadcasting.

Chairman Ed Royce and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy recently stated that “the truth is Kim Jong-un’s greatest enemy. So as we step up sanctions to cut off the cash that funds Kim’s nuclear program, we must also break down barriers to truth in North Korea. This bill will update critical efforts to get real, accurate information into the hands of North Koreans through radio broadcasts, USB drives, mobile devices, and more. When Kim Jong-un has to answer to the North Korean people, he will pose far less danger to us.”

– Sara Venusti

Photo: Flickr

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What to Know About the U.S. House Budget Plan

house of representatives budget
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a two-year, bipartisan budget plan that moves onto the Senate next week before going to President Barack Obama.

The budget passed overwhelmingly in a 332 to 94 vote, including 164 Democrats and 169 Republicans. President Obama has expressed his support for the bill. In addition to budget allocation, the bill addresses the sexual assault cases in the military. Military commanders no longer have the ability to overturn sexual assault cases and victims of sexual assault in the military have greater protections.

The bill outlines $1.012 trillion in government spending, reducing the deficit by more than $20 billion. The bill includes more targeted spending cuts in order to balance spending. $63 billion is allocated to temporary sequester relief, and $85 billion worth of programs have been cut from the budget. The plan includes funding for the Affordable Care Act, increased government spending, and increased taxes. Republican say the new deal is moving “in the wrong direction,” but Democrats call the bill “a small positive step forward.”

The budget does not include unemployment benefit extensions for the one million Americans whose benefits are set to expire in January, but White House spokesman Jay Carney urged Congress to take up the issue in 2014.

The 2014 budget does not solve any major problems, but it avoids another period of government shutdown. Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin says the budget “reduces the deficit—without raising taxes. And it does so by cutting spending in a smarter way. It doesn’t go as far as I’d like, but it’s a firm step in the right direction. This agreement will stop Washington’s lurch from crisis to crisis. It will bring stability to the budget process and show both parties can work together.” In a year where Congress has only passed 15 bills, many fear bipartisan cooperation is dead.

– Stephanie Lamm

Sources: Al Jazeera, CNN, Slate, House of Representatives
Photo: Giphy.com