I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1841
To review current restrictions on travel to North Korea, call for a formal
end to the Korean War, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH4, 2025
Mr. S
HERMAN(for himself, Mr. BIGGSof Arizona, Ms. CHU, Mr. MIN, Mr.
M
OYLAN, Ms. NORTON, Mr. AMO, Ms. BROWNLEY, Mr. CASAR, Mr. CAR-
SON, Mr. CORREA, Mr. DAVISof Illinois, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Mr. FROST,
Mr. G
ARCI´Aof Illinois, Mr. GOTTHEIMER, Mr. GREENof Texas, Mr. GRI-
JALVA, Mr. JACKSONof Illinois, Ms. JAYAPAL, Ms. KAMLAGER-DOVE,
Mr. K
HANNA, Mr. LEVIN, Ms. LOFGREN, Mr. MCGOVERN, Ms. OMAR,
Ms. P
INGREE, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Ms. STRICKLAND, Mr. TAKANO, Ms.
T
ITUS, Mr. TONKO, Mr. TRAN, and Mr. VARGAS) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs A BILL
To review current restrictions on travel to North Korea,
call for a formal end to the Korean War, 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 ‘‘Peace on the Korean 4
Peninsula Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 1
Congress makes the following findings: 2
(1) On July 27, 1953, the commander in chief 3
of the United Nations Command signed an armistice 4
agreement with the supreme commander of the 5
North Korean People’s Army and the commander of 6
the Chinese People’s Volunteers, aiming to ‘‘insure 7
a complete cessation of hostilities and of all acts of 8
armed force in Korea until a final peaceful settle-9
ment is achieved’’. 10
(2) The armistice agreement neither formally 11
ended the war nor represented a final peaceful set-12
tlement. 13
(3) On April 27, 2018, in Panmunjom, the 14
leaders of South Korea and North Korea declared 15
that ‘‘a new era of peace has begun on the Korean 16
peninsula’’, and committed ‘‘to declare the end of 17
war’’ on the Korean peninsula 65 years after the 18
signing of the armistice agreement. 19
(4) In its roll out of its policy towards North 20
Korea, the Biden Administration expressed support 21
for the Singapore framework, which identifies peace 22
on the Korean peninsula as an objective of any fu-23
ture negotiations between the United States and 24
North Korea. 25
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(5) The United States should pursue a sus-1
tained and credible diplomatic process to achieve an 2
end to the Korean war, and every effort should be 3
made to avoid military confrontation with North 4
Korea. 5
(6) The persistence of a state of war does not 6
serve the national interest of the United States and 7
its allies. 8
(7) One major consequence of the continuation 9
of the Korean war is that the United States does not 10
have formal relations with North Korea, which has 11
prevented Korean Americans with relatives in North 12
Korea from seeing their families. 13
(8) Approximately 100,000 Americans have rel-14
atives living in North Korea. 15
(9) At the Hanoi Summit in February 2019, 16
the United States and North Korea discussed for-17
mally ending the Korean war and the exchange of 18
diplomatic liaison offices, however these discussions 19
did not advance due to a stalemate on nuclear and 20
missile issues. 21
(10) The ongoing nuclear- and ballistic-missile- 22
related activities of North Korea continue to pose a 23
threat to international peace and security. 24
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SEC. 3. HUMANITARIAN CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING VIS-1
ITING NORTH KOREA. 2
(a) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-3
gress that the current restrictions barring United States 4
nationals traveling to the Democratic People’s Republic of 5
Korea (DPRK) warrant review by the Secretary of State. 6
(b) R
EVIEW.—The Secretary of State shall conduct 7
a full review of the restrictions in place conditioning the 8
travel of United States nationals to the DPRK. Such re-9
view shall include consideration of the following: 10
(1) The Department of State’s guidance as to 11
the nature of travel to the DPRK that qualifies as 12
‘‘in the national interest’’ of the United States, in-13
cluding whether the scope of travel qualifying as 14
such should be adjusted. 15
(2) The ‘‘compelling humanitarian consider-16
ations’’ that qualify a United States national for 17
travel to the DPRK, including whether the scope of 18
travel permissible under such considerations should 19
be adjusted. 20
(3) Whether, and if so, to what extent and 21
under what conditions, travel to the DPRK for the 22
purposes of attending to or witnessing funerals, bur-23
ials, or other religious and family commemorations 24
of relatives of United States nationals in the DPRK 25
does or should qualify as ‘‘compelling humanitarian 26
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considerations’’ meriting issuance of Special Valida-1
tion Passports to such nationals. 2
(c) R
EPORT.— 3
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 4
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Sec-5
retary of State shall submit to the Committee on 6
Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives and 7
the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate 8
a report detailing the review conducted under sub-9
section (b). Such report shall include a comprehen-10
sive description of the Department of State’s consid-11
eration of all matters described in paragraphs (1), 12
(2), and (3) of such subsection, including, as appli-13
cable, any related policy changes and the rationale 14
behind the Department’s decision to make or refrain 15
from making policy changes relating to such mat-16
ters. 17
(2) F
ORM.—The report required under para-18
graph (1) shall be submitted in unclassified form but 19
may contain a classified annex. 20
SEC. 4. CALLING FOR A FORMAL END TO THE KOREAN 21
WAR. 22
(a) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-23
gress that given the commitment of the leaders of South 24
Korea and North Korea in Panmunjom on April 27, 2018, 25
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to actively promote meetings involving the United States 1
‘‘with a view to replacing the Armistice Agreement with 2
a peace agreement and establishing a permanent and solid 3
peace regime’’, the Secretary of State should pursue seri-4
ous, urgent diplomatic engagement with North Korea and 5
South Korea in pursuit of a binding peace agreement con-6
stituting a formal and final end to the state of war be-7
tween North Korea, South Korea, and the United States. 8
(b) R
EPORT.— 9
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 10
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Sec-11
retary of State shall submit to the Committee on 12
Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives and 13
the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate 14
a report that describes a clear roadmap for achieving 15
a permanent peace agreement on the Korean penin-16
sula. 17
(2) C
ONTENTS.—The report required under 18
paragraph (1) shall— 19
(A) contain an accounting of the steps nec-20
essary to enter into negotiations with North 21
Korea and South Korea to conclude a binding 22
peace agreement; 23
(B) identify the key stakeholders involved 24
in such negotiations; and 25
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(C) describe the challenges concerning the 1
ability of the United States to achieve a binding 2
peace agreement constituting a formal and final 3
end to the state of war between North Korea, 4
South Korea, and the United States. 5
(3) F
ORM.—The report required under para-6
graph (1) shall be submitted in unclassified form but 7
may contain a classified annex. 8
SEC. 5. ESTABLISHING LIAISON OFFICES. 9
It is the sense of Congress that given the joint state-10
ment signed by the United States and North Korea in 11
Singapore on June 12, 2018, which included an agreement 12
to ‘‘establish new U.S.-DPRK relations in accordance with 13
the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace 14
and prosperity’’, the Secretary of State should seek to 15
enter into negotiations with the Democratic People’s Re-16
public of North Korea (DPRK) to establish liaison offices 17
of the DPRK and the United States in the respective cap-18
itals of each such country. 19
SEC. 6. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 20
Nothing in this Act may be construed to affect the 21
status of United States Armed Forces stationed in South 22
Korea or any other foreign country. 23
Æ
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