HONG KONG _ A group of former U.S. officials plans to seek another round of informal talks with North Korean officials as tensions escalate in the region.
Joseph DeTrani, a former U.S. intelligence specialist who helped broker a agreement on North Korea's nuclear program, said unofficial talks between the two sides usually are held about every six months. He said 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 meetings.
DeTrani said he hoped that informal talks will lead to exploratory meetings between U.S. officials and North Korean diplomats. That would allow North Korea to explain its insistence on having a nuclear deterrence, talk about a peace treaty and discuss objections to U.S.-South Korea military exercises, DeTrani said.
Tensions over North Korea have increased as dictator Kim Jong Un accelerates his push for more powerful nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. China, Kim's most prominent ally, has lashed out at South Korea for agreeing to deploy a U.S. missile-defense shield known as Thaad.
So far the U.S. has rejected China's calls for a new round of multilateral talks on North Korea, saying that Kim's "bad behavior" shouldn't be rewarded. Even so, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson plans to travel to Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing this week in search of a new approach to the regime.
A similar effort at engaging Pyongyang was reportedly blocked by the State Department, which refused visas to North Korean officials planning to travel to the U.S. for informal talks in early March with a different set of former U.S. officials. That decision was made after Kim's half-brother was killed at a Malaysian airport in February.
The last meeting involving DeTrani's group of former American officials was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in October with North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Han Song Ryol. Previous meetings were held it London and Singapore.
