North Korea will "pay a price"  if it supplies Russia with weaponry for its war on Ukraine, the White House said.

Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, told reporters that Pyongyang and Moscow were eyeing "leader-level discussions, perhaps even in person."

The meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would be to discuss possible deals for weapons transfer.

Moscow could use additional supplies to "try to conquer territory that belongs to another sovereign nation."

"This is not going to reflect well on North Korea and they will pay a price for this in the international community," Sullivan added.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it was unable to confirm the reports of the potential meeting, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying: "We have nothing to say on this."

A meeting with Putin would be Kim's first summit with a foreign leader since North Korea closed its borders in January 2020.

They met for the first time in April 2019, two months after Kim's high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with former US President Donald Trump collapsed.