North Korea reportedly claims members of its delegation were "literally mugged" by U.S. authorities at John F. Kennedy Airport , condemning America as a "felonious and lawless gangster state."
United States officials "forcibly took away a diplomatic package from the delegation by an illegal and heinous act of provocation" on Friday, the foreign ministry spokesperson said in comments carried by the state-run KCNA news agency, the Daily News reported.
According to North Korea, more than 20 U.S. officials — including some from the Department of Homeland Security — "made a violent assault like gangsters" on NKorean diplomats heading home from a UN conference on the rights of people with disabilities.
"This clearly shows that the U.S. is a felonious and lawless gangster state,” the spokesman said, the News reported. "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.”
There was no official U.S. comment on the claims, the News reported.
The claim comes in the wake of the return to the United States of University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier — who’d been detained in North Korea on suspicion of theft last year and sentenced to 15 years’ hard labor — in a coma.
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