A U.S. state department official handling North Korea issues met with U.S.-based humanitarian aid groups that asked Washington to ease regulations delaying deliveries to the communist country.

According to Voice of America(VOA) on Thursday, the meeting between Alex Wong, the U.S. Deputy Special Representative for North Korea, and group representatives took place in Washington on Tuesday.

Daniel Jasper, representative from the American Friends Service Committee(AFSC) told VOA that such dialogue, held regularly, allowed humanitarian workers to raise the challenges they face and make policy suggestions.

Jasper added that the groups are hopeful that Washington will improve regulations that are drastically slowing the delivery of life-saving aid to North Korean people.

The aid groups, in particular, are calling for the inclusion of simplifying the U.S. government's North Korea humanitarian aid approval procedure in a new COVID-19 stimulus bill under consideration by Congress.