A group of former U.S. officials are seeking to hold informal talks with North Korean officials amid growing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
 
The Bloomberg news agency reported on Sunday that Joseph DeTrani, former director of the U.S. National Counter Proliferation Center, said unofficial talks between the two sides usually take place about every six months.
 
Detrani reportedly said that his group plans to contact the North Korean mission to the United Nations in New York at the end of this month or the beginning of April to arrange the meetings.
 
The former special envoy for six-party nuclear talks said that he is hopeful that informal talks will eventually lead to exploratory meetings between current U.S. officials and North Korean diplomats.
 
He stressed the need to hold some exploratory talks with Pyongyang and see if they can get some momentum on halting what North Korea is doing.
 
Former U.S. nuclear envoys Robert Gallucci and DeTrani held informal talks with North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Han Song-ryol and Deputy UN Ambassador Jang Il-hoon in October last year in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

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