North Korea's foreign minister on Tuesday urged the United States to immediately scrap its decision to provide Ukraine with controversial cluster bombs, calling it a "dangerous criminal act to bring a new calamity to the world."

The US defense ministry announced Friday it is supplying cluster munitions to Ukraine to help defend its territory against Russia, despite concerns from human rights groups that the deployment of such weapons endangers civilians.

"I, on behalf of the DPRK government, vehemently denounce the US decision to offer weapons of mass destruction to Ukraine as a dangerous criminal act to bring a new calamity to the world, and strongly demand the US withdraw the decision immediately," Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui said in a press statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.

She warned the US will face "utterly disastrous consequences if it finally allows the transfer of WMD to be used in the Ukrainian war, which even its vassal countries hesitate to do." (Yonhap)