Former U.S. negotiators on North Korea's nuclear program are urging the Obama administration to reopen dialogue.
They say the current diplomatic impasse buys time for Pyongyang to develop its nuclear weapons program.
Former Obama administration envoy to North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, and former Clinton administration negotiator, Robert Gallucci, made the call in an article Monday in the International New York Times.
During informal talks last month in Europe, they say North Korean officials disclosed that their nuclear weapons program would be on the negotiating table if dialogue resumes. The former envoys say the administration has "healthy skepticism" about the North but the risks of holding new talks, "are less than those that come with doing nothing."
There are indications the North recently restarted a reactor that can make plutonium for bombs.