DIPLOMACY

Pyongyang Says U.S. Authorities ‘Mugged’ Diplomats at Airport

Officials “made a violent assault like gangsters.”

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry has slammed U.S. authorities for what it described as a “mugging” of the country’s diplomats at John F. Kennedy International Airport last week. A ministry spokesman said a delegation from North Korea returning from a United Nations conference had a package confiscated in “an illegal and heinous act of provocation.” “Diplomats of a sovereign state are being robbed of a diplomatic package in the middle of New York where the headquarters of the United Nations is located and that serves as the venue for international meetings including the United Nations General Assembly,” the spokesman said, calling the U.S. a “lawless gangster state.” The country’s state-run news agency said 20 officials from the Department of Homeland Security “made a violent assault like gangsters to take away the diplomatic package from the diplomats.” The White House and the State Department have yet to comment on the matter.