I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1273
To direct the Secretary of State to establish a national registry of Korean
American divided families, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY12, 2025
Mr. S
UBRAMANYAM (for himself, Mrs. KIM, Mr. CONNOLLY, and Ms.
M
ALLIOTAKIS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Foreign Affairs
A BILL
To direct the Secretary of State to establish a national
registry of Korean American divided families, and for
other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Korean American Di-4
vided Families National Registry Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. NATIONAL REGISTRY OF KOREAN AMERICAN DI-1
VIDED FAMILIES. 2
The Secretary of State, acting through the Special 3
Envoy on North Korean Human Rights Issues or such 4
other individual as the Secretary may designate, shall— 5
(1) collate information on Korean American 6
families who wish to be reunited with family mem-7
bers in North Korea from which such Korean Amer-8
ican families were divided after the signing of the 9
Agreement Concerning a Military Armistice in 10
Korea, signed at Panmunjom July 27, 1953 (com-11
monly referred to as the ‘‘Korean War Armistice 12
Agreement’’), in anticipation of future reunions for 13
such families and family members, including in-per-14
son and video reunions; and 15
(2) establish a private internal national registry 16
of the names and other relevant information of such 17
Korean American families— 18
(A) to host such future reunions in South 19
Korea, the United States, or third countries; 20
and 21
(B) to provide for a private internal reposi-22
tory of information about such Korean Amer-23
ican families and family members in North 24
Korea, including information about individuals 25
who may be deceased. 26
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SEC. 3. ACTIONS TO FACILITATE DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE 1
UNITED STATES AND NORTH KOREA. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary of State shall take 3
such actions as may be necessary to ensure that any direct 4
dialogue between the United States and North Korea in-5
cludes progress towards holding future reunions for Ko-6
rean American families and their family members in North 7
Korea as described in section 2. 8
(b) C
ONSULTATIONS.—The Secretary of State shall 9
consult with the Government of the Republic of Korea in 10
carrying out this section. 11
(c) R
EPORT.—No later than one year after enact-12
ment of this Act, and annually thereafter for 5 years, the 13
Secretary of State shall submit to the appropriate congres-14
sional committees a report on— 15
(1) the status of the national registry estab-16
lished pursuant to section 2(a)(2); 17
(2) the number of individuals included on the 18
registry who— 19
(A) have met their family members in 20
North Korea during previous reunions; and 21
(B) have yet to meet their family members 22
in North Korea during previous reunions; 23
(3) a summary of responses by North Korea to 24
requests to hold reunions of divided families; and 25
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(4) a description of regulations in North Korea 1
and actions taken by North Korea in the year pre-2
vious to submission of each report that prevent the 3
emigration of family members of Korean American 4
families. 5
(d) A
PPROPRIATECONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES 6
D
EFINED.—In this Act, ‘‘appropriate congressional com-7
mittees’’ means the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the 8
House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign 9
Relations of the Senate. 10
Æ
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