WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- A U.S. congressman has introduced a bill calling on the Obama administration to help American citizens adopt North Korean orphans adrift in other countries.
Rep. Edward Royce (R-Ca) submitted Friday the bill to call on the Obama administration to "make every effort to facilitate the immediate care, family reunification, and, if necessary and appropriate, the adoption of any eligible North Korean children living outside North Korea as de jure or de facto stateless refugees."
A similar bill submitted by Royce early last year failed to pass Congress.
Another bill submitted by Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) in February is still pending.
Royce's bill requires Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to report to Congress within 180 days of the act's enactment on "the details of the strategy" to "establish pilot programs for the identification, immediate care, family reunification and international adoption of North Korean orphans living outside North Korea as de jure or de facto stateless refugees."
Tens of thousands of North Korean children are said to be adrift in China without being attended to by their parents. Hundreds of thousands of North Korean refugees are hiding in China to flee poverty in their reclusive communist homeland.
South Korea has received more than 20,000 North Korean defectors since the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War. The U.S. has taken in about 100 North Korean refugees since the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004.