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North Korea accused U.S. authorities on Sunday of "mugging" its diplomats at the John F. Kennedy airport in New York, forcibly confiscating a diplomatic package which it said
raised questions about the city as the seat of the United Nations. The North's Foreign Ministry spokesman said a delegation of the North returning from a U.N. conference on the rights
of persons with disabilities "was literally mugged" at the John F. Kennedy airport 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. "This clearly shows that the U.S. is a felonious and lawless gangster state," the spokesman said in comments carried
by the North's official KCNA news agency. Planes sit on the runway at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) Spencer Platt | Getty Images "The international community needs to
seriously reconsider whether or not New York, where such an outrageous mugging is rampant, is fit to serve as the venue for international meetings," KCNA said. The State Department and
White House had no immediate comment on the North Korean statement. KCNA said the incident took place on June 16 when more than 20 officials who claimed to be from the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security and police "made a violent assault like gangsters to take away the diplomatic package from the diplomats." The diplomats were in possession of a valid diplomatic
courier certificate, KCNA said. The claim comes amid diplomatic tensions after the North released American student Otto Warmbier whose parents said he was in a coma after being held by the
North for 17 months. Warmbier, 22, who arrived in the United States on Tuesday, is stable but "shows no sign of understanding language, responding to verbal commands or awareness of his
surrounding," a doctor at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center said. The U.N. Security Council has imposed sanctions against North Korea for the reclusive state's nuclear
and ballistic missile activities. The North, which is a member state of the United Nations, has rejected the resolutions as infringements of its right to self defense and space exploration.
