TOKYO, December 23. /TASS/. North Korea believes that US arms supplies to Kiev constitute a criminal act and bring "bloodshed and destruction" to Ukraine, a spokesman for the North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

"The international community will have to focus on the US criminal acts of bringing bloodshed and destruction to Ukraine by providing it with various kinds of lethal weapons and equipment on a large scale, rather than lending an ear to the groundless theory of ‘arms transaction’ between the DPRK and Russia cooked up by some dishonest forces for different purposes," the statement says.

US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby claimed on Thursday that North Korea has supplied weapons to Russia’s Wagner private military company and was planning new supplies. UN Secretary-General's Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said at a briefing later in the day that the global organization had no information about alleged arms deliveries from North Korea.

Russia stressed on numerous occasions that its armed forces have no need of buying weapons from abroad for the special military operation in Ukraine, since the country's defense industry is coping with its tasks.