Whereas North Korean escapees and asylum seekers in China, the vast majority of whom are women, are again being forcibly returned to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) with the opening up of the Sino-North Korean border in 2023; Whereas the Governments of China and North Korea are now aggressively seeking to locate and detain North Koreans who are in China and to forcibly return them to North Korea, including by offering bounties for information on North Koreans living in China; Whereas, according to the 18 United Nations Special Experts on human rights in an October 2023 statement urging the People’s Republic of China to honor its obligations under international law, there are long-standing and credible reports to believe that North Korea escapees forced returned to [North Korea] would be subjected to torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment and other serious human rights violations. ; Whereas the 2014 Commission on Inquiry on Human Rights North Korea and the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights condemned the long-standing, systematic and gross violations of human rights occurring in North Korea, including those that may amount to crimes against humanity; Whereas, according to the 2014 United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in North Korea report, the Government of North Korea holds up to 120,000 political prisoners in camps managed by its State Security Agency through the use of forced labor, beatings, torture, and executions. Many prisoners also die from disease, starvation, and exposure; Whereas the Government of North Korea imposes punishments, including execution, for crimes such as attempted defection, slander of the Korean Workers Party, listening to foreign broadcasts, possessing printed matter that is considered reactionary by the Korean Workers Party, and holding prohibited religious beliefs