NKorea: US police seize diplomatic package

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Sunday accused U.S. officials of ‘‘mugging’’ its diplomats at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City by seizing a diplomatic package they were carrying.

A North Korean delegation returning home from a U.N. conference in New York was about to board a plane Friday when more than 20 agents and police officers from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security confiscated the package, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.

The spokesman said the North Koreans were carrying a valid diplomatic courier certificate. He did not disclose what the diplomatic package contained.

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