Homeland Security confirms items seized but says North Koreans did not have diplomatic status, amid tensions after release of Otto Warmbier

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

North Korea accused US authorities on Sunday of “mugging” its diplomats at 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.

Otto Warmbier has severe brain injury and is unresponsive, doctors say Read more

US Department of Homeland Security spokesman David Lapan said its officers did seize multiple media items and packages from three North Koreans who, according to the state department, were not accredited members of North Korea’s Mission to the UN and had no diplomatic immunity.

It was not clear what was in the package. Lapan also said: “The reported aggression was initiated by the North Koreans.”

The claim came amid diplomatic tensions after North Korea 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 US 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.

A foreign ministry spokesman said a delegation from North Korea returning from a UN conference on the rights of persons with disabilities “was literally mugged” at JFK 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 US is a felonious and lawless gangster state,” the spokesman said in comments carried by North Korea’s official KCNA news agency.

“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.”

“The package in question had no diplomatic protection from inspection,” said Lapan, the DHS spokesman, adding that North Koreans attempted to physically retrieve the items but were prevented from doing so by DHS officers.



“The individuals were released without further incident but subsequently refused to board their departing flight without the items that had been seized.”

It was not immediately clear why the items were taken. The state department confirmed the assertions by DHS that the package had no diplomatic protection and that the travelers were not accredited North Korean diplomats at the UN, but offered no other details.

KCNA said the incident took place on 16 June when more than 20 officials who claimed to be from the US 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 UN security council has imposed sanctions against North Korea for the reclusive state’s nuclear and ballistic missile activities.

North Korea, which is a member state of the UN, has rejected the resolutions as infringements of its right to self defense and space exploration.

• This article was amended on 19 June 2017. An earlier version mistakenly said North Korea was a member state of the US. This has been changed to UN.

