From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Jonathan Jones reporting.

This developing story at this hour.

The North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is eager to meet with President Trump for talks as soon as possible and says he is committed to refrain from nuclear and missile tests.

The stunning and historic announcement was made outside the White House Thursday night by South Korea's national security adviser Chung Eui-yong.

Chung said Trump would like to meet with Kim by May.

Chung also announced U.S.-South Korean military exercises near the Korean Peninsula will take place in April as planned and that Kim understands such exercises are necessary.

Chung was in Washington Thursday to talk with American officials about his talks with Kim this week in Pyongyang.

President Trump signed new tariffs of 25 percent for steel imports and 10 percent for aluminum imports.

"... and we want to look a lot of steel coming into our country, but we want it to be fair. And we want our workers to be protected and we want frankly our companies to be protected."

The president said Thursday he will hold off on imposing tariffs on Mexico and Canada while both countries renegotiate the North America(n) Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.

He also said there will be [other] will be ways that other nations can avoid the tariffs. Some opponents of the tariffs see them as undermining the rules based global trading system and they believe using national security designed as protectionism will encourage other countries to resort to the same premise to protect their domestic markets.

This is VOA news.

There is no official finger pointing, but Russia has been implicated in the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain on Sunday.

British Home Secretary Amber Rudd: "... investigation is moving at pace. And this government will act without hesitation as the facts become clearer. As my right honorable friend, the foreign secretary made clear on Tuesday, we will respond in a robust and appropriate manner once we ascertain who was responsible."

Investigators say it was a nerve agent that hospitalized Sergei Skripal, his daughter Yulia, and the responding officer.

The poisoning is threatening a full-scale security and diplomatic crisis for Britain, with lawmakers demanding the government launch an investigation into more than a dozen recent suspicious deaths in Britain, all potentially tied to Russian intelligence services.

Russia's foreign minister has signed economic agreements in Zimbabwe, one of five stops on a tour of Africa.

Sergey Lavrov's trip coincides with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's first visit to the continent.

Analysts see a common backdrop, the global power struggle between the U.S., China and Russia playing out in Africa.

VOA's Anita Powell reports from Johannesburg.

The stated aim of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's trip to old ally Zimbabwe was to reaffirm relations and to ink deals that the Kremlin says will "cement bilateral ties." His visit also coincided with his American counterpart's first trip to the continent this week.

(He) criticized U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for his view on Chinese involvement in Africa.

In a speech before his departure, Tillerson accused China of "encouraging dependency" in Africa.

Anita Powell, VOA news, Johannesburg.

And this developing story at the top of the our news cast, the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is eager to meet with President Trump for talks as soon as possible and says he is committed to refrain from the north conducting any further nuclear and missile tests.

The stunning and historic announcement was made outside the White House Thursday night by the South Korean national security adviser Chung Eui-yong.

Chung said Trump would like to meet with Kim by May.

He also announced that U.S.-South Korean military exercises near the Korean Peninsula will take place in April as planned and that Kim understands that such exercises are necessary.

You can find more on these and other late breaking and developing stories, from around the world, around the clock, at voanews.com and on the VOA news mobile app. From the world headquarters of the Voice of America in Washington, I'm Jonathan Jones, VOA news.

That's the latest world news from VOA.