Russia's top diplomat has called on the U.S. to take corresponding measures to North Korea's constructive steps in its denuclearization process.

In his annual press briefing on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow has supported "positive trends on the Korean Peninsula" in line with the Russian-Chinese road map on crisis settlement.

He said such trends "invoke the necessity of response steps as a reaction to Pyongyang's constructive actions."

In 2017, Russia and China introduced a comprehensive step-by-step road map to resolving the North Korean nuclear issue, which begins by the North declaring the suspension of its nuclear and missile tests and pledging nonproliferation.

This will be met by South Korea and the U.S. either reducing or halting their annual military drills, then normalization of the U.S.-North Korea and inter-Korean ties, which will be followed by regional powers discussing the security system in Northeast Asia.