DENMARK’S government has summoned the top US diplomat in the country to the Foreign Ministry for an explanation following reports that Washington has stepped up its spying operations in Greenland.

Acting US embassy head Jennifer Hall Godfrey met high-ranking Danish diplomat Jeppe Tranholm-Mikkelsen on Thursday over a Wall Street Journal article published two days before, the ministry said in an email.

The newspaper, citing two people familiar with the US effort that it did not identify, reported that several high-ranking officials under US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard had directed intelligence agency heads to learn more about Greenland’s independence movement and sentiment regarding US resource extraction there.

It provided no further details and the embassy declined to comment.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told broadcaster DR outside a meeting with colleagues in Poland on Wednesday that Denmark would summon the US diplomat to seek a “rebuttal” or other explanation following the report.

Mr Rasmussen, who has previously rebuked the Trump administration over its criticism of Nato ally Denmark and Greenland, said the information in the report was “very worrying” and “we don’t spy between friends.”

In response to questions about the Wall Street Journal report, Ms Gabbard’s office issued a statement noting that she had made three “criminal” referrals to the Justice Department over intelligence community leaks. 

“The Wall Street Journal should be ashamed of aiding deep state actors who seek to undermine the president by politicising and leaking classified information,” Ms Gabbard wrote. 

“They are breaking the law and undermining our nation’s security and democracy. Those who leak classified information will be found and held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said last month that US statements about the mineral-rich Arctic island had been disrespectful and that it would “never, ever be a piece of property that can be bought by just anyone.”