Anchor: United States Congress opened a hearing of its Congressional-Executive Commission on China on Monday local time. During the hearing, North Korean defectors Han Song-hwa and her daughter Jo Jin-hye testified about the torture they suffered in the North. Our Kim Soyon has more.

Report: During the Monday hearing at the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China, Han and Jo disclosed graphic details of unimaginable torture and sexual violence North Korean defectors suffer at the hands of the North’s State Security Department officials when they return to their homeland.

The mother and daughter urged the international community to play a more active role for North Korean defectors. Han testified that after they were returned to the North, they labored at a concentration camp from 5 a.m. until late in the night. They were allowed to sleep for a few hours before they were dragged back to work.

The daughter said that just to articulate what she witnessed and experienced as a woman is extremely difficult in and of itself. Then she spoke about the “horrendous” atrocities perpetrated by security officials.

She said the officials explain they are searching for hidden money and proceed to feel women's genitals with their gloved hands. She said a 16-year-old girl’s uterus once bled after the search.

Han said the U.S. has accepted tens of thousands of refugees from around the world but only 130 North Koreans have been granted exile to the U.S. since Congress passed the North Korea Human Rights Act in 2004. She called on Washington and the international community to step up efforts to protect North Korean refugees.

Representative Chris Smith, who chairs the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, said during the hearing that “it's unclear whether or not the Obama Administration's food aid to North Korea - some 240-thousand metric tons per year - contains any conditions or links to the refugees.” But he said that it should.

Some 60 people attended the hearing to address China's forced repatriation of North Korean defectors, which has emerged as a diplomatic concern between Seoul and Beijing. The participants included U.S. administration and congressional officials, domestic and foreign reporters, civic groups, and South Korean Embassy officials.

Kim Soyon, KBS World Radio News.