diff --git a/configure.py b/configure.py
index b98e37d944d7f0..bfed05d495a957 100755
--- a/configure.py
+++ b/configure.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import json
 import sys
 import errno
 import optparse
@@ -1252,13 +1253,9 @@ def glob_to_var(dir_base, dir_sub, patch_dir):
   return list
 
 def configure_intl(o):
-  icus = [
-    {
-      'url': 'https://sourceforge.net/projects/icu/files/ICU4C/62.1/icu4c-62_1-src.zip',
-      'md5': '408854f7b9b58311b68fab4b4dfc80be',
-    },
-  ]
   def icu_download(path):
+    with open('tools/icu/current_ver.dep') as f:
+      icus = json.load(f)
     # download ICU, if needed
     if not os.access(options.download_path, os.W_OK):
       error('''Cannot write to desired download path.
diff --git a/tools/icu/README.md b/tools/icu/README.md
index 01c12279311441..a2613544241b8e 100644
--- a/tools/icu/README.md
+++ b/tools/icu/README.md
@@ -92,9 +92,9 @@ make clean
 tools/license-builder.sh
 ```
 
-- Now, fix the default URL for the `full-icu` build in `/configure.py`, in
-the `configure_intl()` function. It should match the ICU URL used in the
-first step.  When this is done, the following should build with full ICU.
+- Update the URL and hash for the full ICU file in `tools/icu/current_ver.dep`.
+It should match the ICU URL used in the first step.  When this is done, the
+following should build with full ICU.
 
 ```shell
 # clean up
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ make
 make test-ci
 ```
 
-- commit the change to `configure.py` along with the updated `LICENSE` file.
+- commit the change to `tools/icu/current_ver.dep` and `LICENSE` files.
 
   - Note: To simplify review, I often will “pre-land” this patch, meaning that
   I run the patch through `curl -L https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/xxx.patch
diff --git a/tools/icu/current_ver.dep b/tools/icu/current_ver.dep
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..5e439928ebb540
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/icu/current_ver.dep
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+[
+  {
+    "url": "https://sourceforge.net/projects/icu/files/ICU4C/62.1/icu4c-62_1-src.zip",
+    "md5": "408854f7b9b58311b68fab4b4dfc80be"
+  }
+]