President George W. Bush said in a statement he was 'deeply concerned' about the grave human rights conditions in North Korea, while a key panel of the US House of Representatives passed a bill requiring the appointment of a full-time envoy to work on human rights issues in the hardline communist state.

'I am deeply concerned by the stories of divided families, harsh conditions, and suffering,' Mr Bush said, as he marked 'North Korea Freedom Week' devoted to promoting freedom and human rights for North Koreans and to focus the world's attention on their suffering.

The US State Department said in its annual human rights report that North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il's regime continued to commit numerous serious abuses, citing reports of extrajudicial killings, disappearances and arbitrary detention, including of political prisoners, harsh prison conditions and the use of torture.

Mr Bush, who had met previously with North Korean defectors in the Oval Office, said the United States stood with the people of the reclusive state in their quest for freedom.

The House of Representatives foreign affairs committee on Wednesday cleared a North Korean human rights bill that required a report from the US authorities on efforts to expand broadcasts to North Korea.

It also called for increases to US funding for human rights and democracy programs in North Korea, currently involved in talks with the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia aimed at ending its nuclear weapons drive.

'The people of North Korea continue to suffer some of the worst conditions imaginable,' said Ms Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the ranking Republican on the House committee. 'The totalitarian regime of Kim Jong Il does not permit political freedom or religious liberty, and crushes dissent,' she said.

The legislation also urges the State Department to improve the screening, processing and resettlement of North Korean refugees in the United States.

Since 2004, the United States has resettled an estimated 150,000 refugees from around the world, but fewer than 50 from North Korea.

Ms Ros-Lehtinen said the North Korean refugee problem was exacerbated by China, which she said paid bounty for North Korean border-crossers and routinely repatriated refugees to Pyongyang where they face prison, torture, and public execution.

She met with families of Japanese abducted by North Korean agents in Japan and forced to live in North Korea as translators and language teachers.

The US Congressional Human Rights Caucus held a special film screening of excerpts of the documentary 'On the Border' as part of the North Korea Freedom Week.

It included recent footage documenting human and drug trafficking on the China-North Korea border, produced by a South Korean news team.

Another movie 'Crossing,' scheduled for theatrical release in South Korea in June, was also screened. It is the first feature film to deal with the refugee crisis in North Korea. -- AFP