Current circumstances offer a “perfect chance to start a peace-building process” with North Korea, Professor Georgy Toloraya told NK News on Tuesday, pointing to a potential short-term window of diplomatic opportunity.

Toloraya, who served in USSR and Russian Federation embassies in Pyongyang and Seoul multiple times, said the combination of North Korea’s declared completion of its “state nuclear force” and a rumored delay in scheduled U.S.–South Korean military drills due to the upcoming Pyeongchang Winter Olympics could, together, “give room for dialogue.”

“It is a fortunate situation that the North Koreans have stopped their exercises or provocations – or whatever