East vs East – Asia’s new arms race

It is, by now, clear that Kim Jong-un is madder than his father. He’s blasted off North Korea’s third nuclear test and plans to restart its nuclear reactor, as his people continue to starve. Last weekend his government declared that the ‘time has come to stage a do-or-die final battle’ with South Korea. He has instructed his troops to ‘break the waists of the crazy enemies’ and also ‘cut their windpipes’. For good measure he described Park Geun-hye, South Korea’s first female president, as a ‘venomous swish of skirt’ and has severed all military hotlines with Seoul, like a petulant teenager refusing to answer the phone. It would be funny, if only his nukes weren’t real.

America, at any rate, is taking the threat seriously. Last weekend, two nuclear-capable B-2 bombers took off from Missouri for a practice run over the Korean Peninsula. This was not just a warning to Kim. General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, admitted that his exercises ‘are mostly to assure our allies that they can count on us to be prepared’. In other words, America isn’t just worried about North Korea. It’s worried about the reaction of its neighbours — and the furious arms race that is happening throughout the East.

America’s role as the policeman of Asia, established since the second world war, seems to be diminishing. From Japan to the Philippines, old war wounds are being reopened. Erstwhile rivals are playing a dangerous game of ‘what if’. Now that China has just become the top regional power, what if it starts to point its nukes at specific targets? What if Japan, in its paranoia, rediscovers its old militaristic self? And what if a debt-ridden, war-weary America decides it hasn’t the time or energy to deal with Lil’ Kim? Having spent the last five decades growing prosperous in relative peace, Asia looks like it’s gearing up for conflict.