This article was originally published on VOA and translated by OKN Correspondent.
The U.S. Congress is having a state budget review for the new fiscal year that, as in previous years, would include a ban on spending on the North Korean regime. This budget draws attention as the review urges the U.S. administration to investigate the risks associated with the ‘broker’ that brokers the U.S.-North Korean separated family reunions. Lee Jo-eun reports.
On the 23rd, the U.S. Senate began its state budget review for the 2022 fiscal year, which it did not complete last year. The review is the procedure for applying the budget bill, which was not processed when the provisional budget bill was passed to support government expenditure in the 2022 fiscal year, to the 2023 fiscal year.
The Senate is reviewing the state budget about eight months after the bill passed the House of Representatives in the middle of last year. This time the bill also includes prohibiting spending on direct financial support, aid, or compensations to the North Korean regime, except in certain cases.
Expenditure related to North Korea was allowed only for human rights promotion activities in North Korea and supporting activities for broadcasting to North Korea. Specifically, some of the ‘economic aid fund’ and ‘democracy fund’ should be spent on promotional activities for human rights in North Korea.
In addition, the budget allocated according to the standards of the ‘International Broadcasting Operation’ was to be used to maintain broadcast time to North Korea above the level of the previous fiscal year. The budget again includes a clause that gives the Secretary of State the power to limit U.S. government aid to countries that support the cyber-attack capabilities of the North Korean regime.
The clause stresses to not allow budgets to be used for aid to the central government of countries determined to be involved in important transactions that materially contribute to the cyber-attack capabilities of the North Korea regime.
The House Appropriation Committee attached a report to the budget bill. It requests the Secretary of State to submit a report to Congress if there is reliable information that foreign governments receiving State Department aid are currently making material contributions to North Korea’s malicious cyber-attack capabilities.
In particular, this budget includes content urging for the first time to investigate the risks associated with the ‘broker’ that brokers the reunions of divided families between the United States and North Korea.
In its budget report, the House Appropriations Committee urged the office of the special envoy for North Korea human rights of the State Department to investigate the risks associated with third-party brokers seeking to find separated families’ whereabouts and offer reunions.
The report also urged to disclose the facts identified from the investigation through the website. In a phone call with VOA on March 28th, Executive Director Chahee Lee of the National Coalition for the Divided Families pointed out the excessively high costs, frequent fraud, and corruption of the brokers and North Korean authorities regarding the divided family reunions.
[Executive Director Chahee Lee] “There was a problem with credibility. You are once told to meet your brother and that he is waiting for you, but once you show up, strangers are there. Strangers. That’s why people who haven’t been able to meet their families make such stories public in the newspaper.”
Divided families pay up to tens of thousands of dollars in cash to brokers in the hope of meeting their families in North Korea without verifying concrete evidence. However, the explanation provides that in 70-80% of cases, there is no one or someone else is present when the families arrive at the meeting point.
Moreover, he pointed out that because there is no formal contract with the broker, there is no way to get a refund of the money already paid even if the family reunion does not happen.
Executive Director Chahee Lee also pointed out that brokers work with North Korean officials to continue the fraudulent reunion of divided families. It is known that 50-70% of the expenses paid by separated families go to the North Korean authorities.
[Executive Director Chahee Lee] “I do not have a recorded document on this. However, it is a well-known fact among us divided families. If you send money, cash, I know that the North Korean regime takes a certain percentage of the cash, and then it goes to the divided families.”
However, Executive Director Chahee Lee said that compared to the active brokerage activity for divided family reunions in the 1990s, it decreased significantly in the 2000s, when the number of separated families began to age.
VOA Video:
It has been confirmed that the U.S. Congress included in the budget bill for the 2022 fiscal year to urge investigations into the risks associated with the ‘broker’ that brokers the U.S.-North Korean divided family reunions. Lee Jo-eun reports.
The National Coalition for the Divided Families pointed out the corruption of the brokers for divided family reunions and North Korean authorities. On March 23rd, the U.S. Senate began its state budget review for the fiscal year 2022, which it did not complete last year.
While the budget bill has included several budgets related to North Korea, it included for the first time urging investigations into the risks associated with the ‘broker’ that brokers the reunions of divided families between the United States and North Korea.
In its budget report, the House Appropriations Committee urged the office of the special envoy for North Korea human rights of the State Department to investigate the risks associated with third-party brokers seeking to find divided families’ whereabouts and offer reunions. The report also urged to disclose the facts identified from the investigation via the website.
Executive Director Chahee Lee of the National Coalition for the Divided Families pointed out to VOA on the 28th the excessively high costs, frequent fraud, and corruption of the brokers and North Korean authorities regarding the divided family reunions.
“There was a problem with credibility. You are once told to meet your brother and that he is waiting for you, but once you show up, strangers are there. Strangers. That’s why people who haven’t been able to meet their families make such stories public in the newspaper.”
Divided families pay up to tens of thousands of dollars in cash to brokers in the hope of meeting their families in North Korea without verifying concrete evidence. However, the explanation provides that in 70-80% of cases, there is no one or someone else is present when the families arrive at the meeting point.
Executive Director Chahee Lee also mentioned that brokers work with North Korean officials to continue the reunion fraud. It is known that 50-70% of the expenses paid by divided families go to the North Korean authorities.
“It is a well-known fact among us divided families. If you send money, cash, I know that the North Korean regime takes a certain percentage of the cash, and then it goes to the divided families.”
This time, the State budget report also includes prohibiting spending on direct financial support, aid, or compensation to the North Korean regime, except in certain cases.
Expenditure related to North Korea was allowed only for human rights promotion activities in North Korea and supporting activities for broadcasting to North Korea.
The budget again includes a clause that gives the Secretary of State the power to limit U.S. government aid if it supports the North Korean regime’s cyber-attack capabilities.
To read the original article in Korean, please click here.
