Pyongyang, North Korea - North Korea condemned on Monday what it called "shameless" moves by the US that it said undermined the United Nations and accused Washington of a "hideous criminal act."

Pyongyang's mission to the United Nations in New York blasted reported plans for a briefing on its alleged violations of sanctions, in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

Instead, it said, "what should be questioned and openly discussed in the UN as the most important pending issue is the hideous criminal act of the US."

"The US despises the existence of the UN itself," Pyongyang said.

Mexico Mexico's Sheinbaum seeks stronger ties with US after Trump's latest threat

Pyongyang's envoys did not specify the act in question, but the statement comes just over a week after the US' abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

That operation represents a nightmare scenario for North Korea's leadership, which has long feared a so-called "decapitation strike" of that kind and accused Washington of seeking to remove it from power.

Washington's "irrationality and malpractice of abusing the UN arena to satisfy its geopolitical self-interest should never be allowed," North Korea's mission said.

It also accused Washington of "shameless illegal and immoral acts" and "trying to make a mockery of the UN arena for unilateral and selfish purposes."

President Donald Trump last week announced the US would leave a number of United Nations organizations it identified as "contrary to the interests of the United States."

North Korea is under a slew of United Nations Security Council sanctions over its nuclear and missile program.