In case you haven’t read it yet, check out the WSJ piece (via the Post Gazette) on eroding nuclear sentiment in Northeast Asia. Here’s just a taste:
But in a region already fearful of North Korea’s nuclear-weapons ambitions, the Rokkasho project is adding to the anxiety. Arms-control experts and some U.S. officials warn that if North Korea tests an atomic bomb, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan might reconsider their pledges not to develop nuclear weapons. This trio of American allies possesses more than enough technical expertise, and Asian history supplies considerable mistrust.
“If you had a nuclear North Korea, it just introduces a whole different dynamic,” the U.S. ambassador to Japan, Thomas Schieffer, told reporters earlier this month. “That increases the pressure on both South Korea and Japan to consider going nuclear themselves.”
For years, the nuclear temptation in Asia as elsewhere has been held in check by formal agreement and a strong international taboo. Under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, countries that renounced nuclear weapons could expect their neighbors and rivals to be similarly constrained.
But the constraints have weakened over the past decade. India and Pakistan, which never signed the treaty, declared themselves nuclear-armed — and paid little price for their defiance. Iran is widely suspected of trying to use its nuclear-power complex to build a weapon. And speculation has mounted that North Korea — which declared in February that it has nuclear weapons — could be preparing to test one.
Japan, South Korea and Taiwan all insist they have no nuclear-weapons ambitions. American pressure and, in the case of Taiwan, the threat of Chinese retaliation serve as powerful restraints. But key players in all three countries have begun to quietly question their own antinuclear pledges while raising even stronger doubts about their neighbors’ intentions.
About Korea, it writes:
Meanwhile, Japan’s neighbors are nervously watching not just North Korea, but the Japanese as well. Historic Korean mistrust of Japan has been exacerbated recently by a dispute between Seoul and Tokyo over two small islands, as well as concern over Japan’s moves toward strengthening its military. In a poll in April by the Seoul-based survey firm Research & Research, 37 percent of respondents ranked Japan as South Korea’s biggest security threat. That compared with 29 percent for North Korea, 19 percent for the U.S. and 12 percent for China.
In a separate poll last July, Kim Tae Hyun, a political scientist at Chung-Ang University in Seoul, found that 51 percent agreed that South Korea should have nuclear weapons.
Both anti-Japanese and pro-nuclear sentiment will play out in a big-budget South Korean movie set for release this summer. “Heaven’s Soldiers” features a fictional joint North and South Korean nuclear-weapons program and culminates with nuclear-armed heroes traveling back in time to medieval Korea. There, they help fend off invasions by the Manchurians and Japanese. “The reason these kinds of plots appeal to Korean viewers, is that many Koreans believe that if they have nuclear weapons it would prevent” attacks by hostile regional powers, says Min Joon Ki, the film’s writer and director.
Nukes, nationalism and distrust — could be a brave new world. For what’s it’s worth, as I’ve mentioned before on this blog, if I were Korean, I would support a nuclear- armed Korea. I just hope security planners are careful making their calculations when they go about arming themselves rather than getting caught up in nationalism.
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Both anti-Japanese and pro-nuclear sentiment will play out in a big-budget South Korean movie set for release this summer. ?€œHeaven?€™s Soldiers?€? features a fictional joint North and South Korean nuclear-weapons program and culminates with nuclear-armed heroes traveling back in time to medieval Korea. There, they help fend off invasions by the Manchurians and Japanese.
Sounds like one Hell of a movie. I can’t wait for the sequel…”Hell’s Soldiers,” in which a non-fictional united Korea sends nuclear armed heroes forward in time to fight the United States. I don’t want to spoil the ending.
?€œBoth anti-Japanese and pro-nuclear sentiment will play out in a big-budget South Korean movie set for release this summer. ?€œHeaven?€™s Soldiers?€? features a fictional joint North and South Korean nuclear-weapons program and culminates with nuclear-armed heroes traveling back in time to medieval Korea. There, they help fend off invasions by the Manchurians and Japanese.?€?
When I ask University students the ?€œwhat if?€? question of what would you do if you could go back in time. Quite a few say they would bring back today?€™s technology to make Korea more powerful. Sounds like a common theme in the Korean psyche. Common enough to be in all sorts of comic books and a soon to be released movie.
I don?€™t know if Korea necessarily needed more advanced technology to defend itself or to be more powerful. Diverting enough resources to the military would have done wonders. It wouldn?€™t have worked in every case. Many nations fell to the Mongols and I doubt simply spending more money on the military would have stopped the Mongols invading Korea. But surely there are cases where it would have helped especially against China. Even with Japan, Japan would not be as bold in its influence in Korea during and after the Russo/Japanese war. Japan would have thought twice attacking a bigger and more powerful Korean military. At the very least it would have bolstered Korea?€™s resistance movement during Japan?€™s occupation.
Directing more resources to the military is advice the U.S and others are giving South Korea today. Unfortunately not heeding this advice has hurt Korea in the past. Hopefully they will not make the same mistake today.
Today Korea thinks big bad inspiring superpower China is their number 4 enemy and their brothers to the North with a million soldiers and nukes as their number 2 enemy. Put on top of that their number 3 enemy the superpower USA, and Japan with the second biggest economy as their biggest enemy, and you got a long and powerful list of enemies.
Better defend yourself and spend more on the military. Especially since your number 3 enemy has bases in your own country.
The horrible excuse for entertainment/fantasy that nuclear weapons are a panacea for Korean insecurity is plain distressing and so out of touch with reality that it sounds more Hollywood than Korean. I heard that some fools consider a North Korean bomb as being a “Korean” bomb as well. If stupidity were criminal here, the government would have to build some South Korean gulags just to contain such.
Walter Russell Mead has a pretty interesting op-ed on the LA Times on the same topic:
http://www.latimes.com/news/op.....commentary
Here’s a snippet:
“The wild card in Washington’s new Asia strategy is South Korea, where some opinion polls rank the U.S. as a greater threat than Pyongyang. Like China, Seoul is more fearful of North Korean instability or a clash with the U.S. than nukes to its north. Any sign of resurgent nationalism in Japan is likely to drive South Korean public opinion closer to Beijing. Keeping South Korea on board is crucial for Washington.”
“Heaven’s Soldiers”–Christ, how childish can people get? Look at my nuclear pee-pee!
Go ahead and make nuclear pee-pee jokes about Bush, I didn’t vote for the frat boy….
For lack of anything better to say, we’re all going to die.
As for poster number 6, John Kerry’s just-released Yale grades are actually lower than Dubyas.
Aww, nuts.
Kerry’s an idiot too…it was vote for tweedledum or tweedledee, just shows America is a strong country, even all that incompetence cannot sink it.
it was vote for tweedledum or tweedledee
In this case, I think it would be more like Tweedledum and Tweedledumber…
Both anti-Japanese and pro-nuclear sentiment will play out in a big-budget South Korean movie set for release this summer. ?€œHeaven?€™s Soldiers?€? features a fictional joint North and South Korean nuclear-weapons program and culminates with nuclear-armed heroes traveling back in time to medieval Korea.
http://www.chungoon.co.kr/
Click - Skip - Movie Info - Multimedia - ????³???¸
Looks interesting. But the real treat is clicking on ??°??€ ????³???¸ after that. After that bitchin’ peace sign I was waiting for our bro to jump on a turtle boat and surf down the Han.
The trailer looks interesting… (I can’t seem to get the ????³???¸ to work but the “Making of”
he trailer looks interesting?€? (I can?€™t seem to get the ????³???¸ to work but the ?€œMaking of?€?
Poor editing - please ignore