NEW YORK: North Korea has accused the United States authorities of “literally mugging” its diplomats at New York’s JFK airport.

A spokesman for Pyongyang said on Saturday its officials had been “robbed” of a diplomatic package at John F. Kennedy Airport on Friday.

North Korea’s state news agency KCNA said the incident proved the US was a “lawless gangster state”.

The North Korean diplomats were reportedly returning from a United Nations conference on disability rights when the incident — branded by KCNA as an “illegal and heinous act of provocation” — took place.

“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.

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2017