What are the two major party candidates' policies on North Korea?
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That of course is an optimum result, and passage of this bill would just be one factor moving events in that direction. Affirmative policies by the next administration aimed at encouraging human rights in North Korea would be necessary also. Meanwhile, the prospects for passage of the bill in the Senate remain uncertain. There is bipartisan support for something of this nature. Sens. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) have supported a similar bill, which did not come to a vote in the Senate. Sen. Richard Lugar, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, has made clear he wants action in this Congress on a North Korea bill. Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle has said he wants Congress to act in a bipartisan manner on North Korean human rights. He faces a serious re-election race in South Dakota and surely does not want to be seen as hostile or indifferent to human rights.
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On Monday, September 13, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist sought to "hotline" the North Korean Human Rights Act. Senate Democratic leaders objected to and thus stalled immediate action. Senate Democratic staffers say this was just to allow Democratic senators to take a look at the bill, and action might have been taken later in the week but for the fact that the Senate went into recess Tuesday for Rosh Hashanah; they were confident there would be action next week. The question remains whether the House version of the legislation is acceptable to Senate Democrats or whether they might water it down (or strengthen it) in some ways. Acceptance of House terms could result in easy passage by a unanimous or near-unanimous vote and signature by the president. Changes in provisions would require a conference committee to meet and agree and could result in no action before adjournment. We speak, especially during a presidential campaign, as if foreign policy is set by the president and his appointees in the executive branch. But on some foreign policy issues involving human rights, Congress has taken an active and useful role: the Iraq Liberation Act, the International Religious Freedom Act, the Sudan Peace Act, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. It has done so usually, and is doing so now, at the prodding of human rights groups and religious groups ranking from the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism to the Southern Baptist Convention. May they be successful in undermining the evil regime of Kim Jong Il.
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