It is a place where most nations deeply distrust their neighbours, and where old-style nationalism still reigns supreme.
Recently, news from the Korean Peninsula has been dominated by missiles: as satellite images confirmed, the North Koreans have been busy preparing another test launch of "BM-25 Musudan", their intermediate-range missile.
The launch ended in failure, the fourth such failure in this year. Nonetheless, North Korean engineers and scientists are busy developing both long-range and submarine-based ballistic missiles, capable of hitting the United States.
There has been much hype about the recent Musudan launch, but few people noticed another piece of news that came from South Korea a week earlier.
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WNU Editor: For the moment .... with the U.S. commitment to Asian defence still strong .... I do not see an East Asia nuclear arms race .... but I do see the development of weapons platforms that can easily be switched from conventional to nuclear payloads. But .... if the U.S. military does leave East Asia, and U.S. security commitments for the region are in doubt .... both South Korea and Japan will develop a nuclear arsenal .... and fast.
2 comments:
The us can not afford to leave Japan or South Korea. With a Chinese and Russian alliance against those opposed to their hegemony, I would expect there may be a need for those allies to co develop their nuke technology with the us. The numbers determine this need.
I first said about 19 years ago that Japan and South Korea needed nuclear deterrents. I'm pleased that people are finally catching on. I can't help but think that if only people had caught on years ago we would all be much better off today.
As for not beung able to afford to leave, very respectfully the US cannot afford to stay. Tbe military is worn down to the point that even basic defense of the US mainland is going to be problematic at best, the natiknal debt is going to make it difficult to change this, and I could go on.
By South Korea developing a nuclear deterrent would give them a fighting chance, allow us to rddeploy to positions that make more sense to us, and should help our relations with these countries. If there's anything we can do to assist them, we should. There may not be much we can actually do as we need to work on upgrading our own nuclear deterrent and may not have the resources to assist them in this area.
The best we can do for them is probably to set a date certain for our complete military withdrawl from both countries that allows them the time and space they need to be able to operate without us. These are strong capable countries who should do just fine and doing so should improve relations with these countries and should enhance our national security.
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