Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday hailed a proposed meeting between US president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as "a step in the right direction".

"We do hope that this meeting is going to take place," Lavrov said after meeting with African Union chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat at the body's headquarters in the Ethiopian capital. "Certainly, it is required to normalise the situation around the Korean peninsula."

South Korea on Thursday said the two leaders would hold an unprecedented summit by the end of May, raising hopes they can broker an agreement on Pyongyang's nuclear programme that has fuelled tensions on the peninsula.

The announcement was confirmed by the White House.

It follows a period of extreme tension between Washington and Pyongyang which saw the two leaders exchanging bitter, personal insults, with Trump mocking Kim as a "little rocket man" and Kim describing him as "mentally deranged" and a "dotard."

Lavrov was in Ethiopia as part of a five-day African tour which began on Monday with a visit to Angola after which he continued on to Namibia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

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