Don't lecture us over ties with North Korea, Russia tells US

Russia on Thursday said the US was hypocritical to criticise President Vladimir Putin's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un because Washington had sown chaos and sent weapons to allies across the world.

"The US has no right to lecture us on how to live," Russia's ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, said in a statement.

For the US and allies, the burgeoning friendship between Kim and Putin is a concern: Washington has accused North Korea of providing arms to Russia, but it is unclear whether any deliveries have been made.

The US, Antonov said, had built up a coalition in Asia, expanded military drills near the Korean peninsula and was supplying billions of dollars of weapons to Ukraine.

"It is time for Washington to throw its economic sanctions into the rubbish dump," Antonov said. "Maintaining the unipolar dominance so beloved by American officials is no longer possible."