DPRK: US apologized and returned seized diplomatic package

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The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said on Tuesday that the US issued an official apology after officials at New York's John F. Kennedy airport seized a diplomatic package from a DPRK delegation.

The items have reportedly been returned to Pyongyang.

State-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), citing a spokesperson from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that the US Department of State made an official apology to the DPRK on behalf of the government and acknowledged that its security officials had made a mistake.

T‍he John F. Kennedy International Airport. /VCG Photo

The report went on to say the US expressed the hope that the DPRK would understand that the mistake was due to security officials being oversensitive.

The spokesman said the US eventually returned the diplomatic package and all its content to the DPRK and urged the US to "learn a due lesson from the incident and never again commit such an act of infringing the sovereignty of other countries, in flagrant violation of the universally recognized international norms and regulations."

Washington has yet to respond.

DPRK condemns US seizure of 'diplomatic package' at JFK airport