Is China Pushing Japan And South Korea To Develop Nuclear Weapons?

Does China Really Want a Nuclear Japan and South Korea? -- Bob Corker, Wall Street Journal

The potential for an atomic arms race in East Asia is real. Beijing must realize this.

North Korea's increased belligerence has alarmed the U.S. and its allies and heightened tensions in the Asian-Pacific region. As usual, though, the hand-wringing in Washington, Tokyo, Beijing and Seoul isn't accompanied by any new ideas on what to do to solve the perennial problem of Pyongyang and its illicit nuclear weapons program.

Most problematic, perhaps, is that nothing has altered the strategic calculus of China—the most influential player with respect to North Korea, and the one without which it is hard to see a resolution.

North Korea was high on the agenda during my recent visit to Northeast Asia, but the reaction in Beijing to Pyongyang's bluster and threats was markedly different than in Tokyo or Seoul. Officials I met with in Japan and South Korea, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Park Gyun-hye, voiced similar concerns over North Korea's growing capabilities and the potential consequences of escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula.

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My Comment: If the U.S. was not in the picture .... and the North Korean threat being what it is .... both South Korea and Japan would have developed nuclear weapons years ago. But the U.S. is in the picture .... hence China's relaxed altitude to a crisis that they really have no stomach to get involved in. As to what is my take .... such a status quo cannot last forever .... but for some reason the Chinese have made the decision to not do anything unless it becomes a real crisis. Is such a policy short sighted .... yes. But that is where Beijing's mindset is at for the moment.