PYONGYANG, June 18 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) condemned on Sunday the U.S. security services for seizing a diplomatic package from its delegation at an airport in New York on Friday.
The spokesman for the DPRK foreign ministry said its delegation was "literally mugged at the John F. Kennedy International Airport by the U.S. authorities" when it was about to board a flight home after attending a conference at the UN headquarters on rights of persons with disabilities.
A group of more than 20 people including those who claimed to be from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and police officers "forcibly took away a diplomatic package from the delegation," the Korean Central News Agency quoted the spokesman as saying.
The spokesman also branded the action as "a planned and organized provocation" and "an intolerable act of infringement upon the sovereignty of the DPRK," warning that the United States should "be fully aware of the grave consequences to follow."
