THE RISE AND RISE OF ATOMIC GENIE

North Korea's capabilities kindle a weapon debate in South Korea and Japan, so the U/S. allies stop to reconsider the nuclear options.


As North Korea races to build a weapon that for the first time could threaten American cities, its neighbors are debating whether they need need their own nuclear arsenal.

The North's rapidly advancing capabilities have scrambled military calculations across the region, and doubts are growing that the United States will be able to keep the atomic genie in the bottle.

For the first time in recent memory, there is a daily argument raging in both South Korea and Japan   -sometimes in public, more often in private -about the nuclear option, driven by worry that the United States might hesitate-

To defend the countries if doing so might provoke the North to launch a missile at Los Angeles or  Washington.

In South Korea, polls show 60 percent of the population favors building nuclear weapons.

And nearly 70 percent want the United States to reintroduce tactical nuclear weapons for battlefield use, which were withdrawn a quarter-century ago.

There is very little public support for nuclear weapons in Japan, the only nation ever to suffer a nuclear attack, but many experts believe that could reverse quickly if North Korea and South Korea both had arsenals.