In a recent NYT interview, former Secretary of State and Cold War strategist Henry R. Kissinger warned that East Asia is racing towards nuclear proliferation.
The controversial former diplomat--whose critics charge with aiding and abetting military regimes in Latin America during his time as part of the Nixon Administration—said a nuclear-armed North Korea is about to kickstart an arms race in which "nuclear weapons" will "spread in the rest of Asia."
“It cannot be that North Korea is the only Korean country in the world that has nuclear weapons, without the South Koreans trying to match it. Nor can it be that Japan will sit there,” he said. “So therefore we’re talking about nuclear proliferation.”
As members of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, both South Korea and Japan are barred from building or obtaining nuclear weapons. But, per the Times, both countries have both the technological capability of producing thousands of missiles quickly. According to a 2015 report by Charles D. Ferguson, president of the Federation of American Scientists, South Korea alone can feasibly produce 4,300 nuclear bombs.
Experts have warned for decades about the threat posed by nuclear proliferation in East Asia. For one, experts believe that a nuclear-armed Japan or South Korea risks escalating any potential low-level military conflict with North Korea to catastrophic levels, as well as undermining their relationship with the U.S.
Nuclear proliferation across the region exponentially increases the possibility of terrorist groups acquiring prime material to produce a makeshift nuclear weapon, or a “dirty bomb.”
South Korea and Japan aren’t the only countries vying to get a hold of ‘the bomb.’ The Times reports that Australia, Myanmar, Taiwan and Vietnam are all considering arming themselves against a rogue North Korean state.
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though just not smiling........... 
🏔 
That's some scary, sheep dipped, barely living a life, brain matter, Riddick! 
