The U.S. Senate on Tuesday unanimously approved a revised bill designed to improve the human rights situation in North Korea.
The U.S. House of Representatives had adopted the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 in July to provide 24 million dollars annually for the next five years in assisting defectors and improving human rights conditions in the communist state.
Since then, the legislation has been pending the Senate's approval while some South Korean lawmakers vehemently opposed to the bill over concerns that it may negatively affect relations with Pyongyang.
However the U.S. Senate passed the bill after slight changes of the contents, which were not immediately known.
The bill allows the U.S. to spend government fund to assist North Korean asylum-seekers for the first time.