Posted on: Monday, September 27, 2004

EDITORIAL
Nuclear arms race in Asia is terrifying

If it wasn't clear before, it should be by now:

In the years ahead, the greatest global threat posed by weapons of mass destruction won't be Iraq or Iran, but may well be a nuclear Asia.

There is a real possibility, unless firm and focused intervention takes place right now, that Asia could see as many as five nations bristling with nuclear arms.

This is in addition to the troublesome situation in South Asia, where Pakistan and India already stare at each other across a nuclear gulf.

Today in Northeast Asia, only China has recognized nuclear capability. But North Korea moves apace toward the day when it will be a nuclear power. Efforts to capture the nuclear threat and put it back in the bottle in North Korea have succumbed to a policy of belligerence and confrontation.

This week North Korea upped the ante by threatening to turn Japan into a "nuclear sea of fire" if its ally, the United States, launches an attack against the North.

To the degree Japan takes this threat seriously, it is only natural that it would consider abandoning its post-war pacifist constitution and move into its own nuclear arms program.

The same thinking would apply in South Korea, which has admitted past experiments with uranium enrichment. And right behind them would be Taiwan.

Clearly, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea have the scientific and technological know-how to build a nuclear capacity if they so choose.

The prospect of a nuclear Asia is terrifying. It is imperative that the United States, as the lead agent for security in the region, move with force and resolve to diminish the tensions that otherwise could lead to a cataclysmic arms race.