Time for the 'Nuclear Neighborhood' option

From Austin Bay comes this look that North Korea is planning to detonate a nuclear device. The signs are, indeed, ones that are pointing to that along with an increasing intransigence on the part of North Korea to be amenable to any other option. What we are seeing here ia a lack of an actual Foreign Policy by the United States to do *anything* save talk. I have previously looked at this lack of Foreign Policy, and then gave forth a way to let China know that it is responsible for the fate of North Korea and that region of the world if it does *nothing*:

1) North Korea - China saved North Korea from destruction during the Korean War and should be held accountable for that activity. As they supply the bulk of ALL North Korean food and goods, China is a key to ending the threats from North Korea. To that end, China should be told that they OWN this problem on the 'You wanted them then, they are Yours now', concept. Further, China should be told that if they do *nothing* then the US will seek to encourage its Friends and Allies in the region to arm themselves with advanced attack and defense capabilities. These Nations would include: Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. If China further refuses to deal with North Korea's proliferation and threats problems, then China shall be de-listed for US trade and Taiwan added for full and FREE TRADE to exclude all of Red China's products and companies. China can pay a 10% entry to market tariff for selling in the US. North Korea is NOT the problem of the US and we do NOT appreciate being dragged into this abdication of responsibility amongst Communist regimes. You wanted that sorry place, now You clean it up.

This is the traditional stance of US Foreign Policy which is to help Friends and Allies to meet challenges that are greater than what they can address. That simple concept of helping Friends and Allies to *strengthen* them and to let those that wish to be neither friend or ally to pay their way, is one that is the Foreign Policy of the Jacksonian Party. Not only my *personal* Foreign Policy outlook, but one that uses the scale-free concepts of friendship and worth of self in being worth *having* as a friend. China, neither being friend nor ally of the US should be paying a price and shouldering this burden on its lonesome. If it *asks* for help, then that request can be considered, but the bulk of the responsibility MUST full upon China, and NOT the United States. North Korea is *not* Our Problem as a Nation.

The fact that North Korea gaining nuclear weapons capability that threatens Our Friends and Allies *is* our problem and when the party responsible for letting North Korea survive and become a threat does *not* take up its responsibilities, the US must then empower its Friends and Allies to defend themselves with Our help and assistance. In this case it requires building the 'Nuclear Neighborhood' of those threatened by North Korea's missile reach.

The United States can encourage our Friends and Allies to seek, with or without our help, to find counters to this nuclear threat either via defense systems, which we are researching, or via 'nuclear counterweight' and building their OWN arsenals of nuclear devices. China is, apparently, aghast at the idea of Japan going nuclear as it is already fielding its first Aegis Destroyer, has ICBM capability via its rocketry program and, in general, is a world class manufacturing center that can out produce all of China and North Korea in this area in a matter of a year or so.

It is, indeed, time to up that ante with South Korea and Taiwan given tacit agreement and support to do the same. Taiwan, in particular, should be given special recognition as a long-standing Friend and Ally of the United States that has been extremely responsible in its activities with regards to Red China. South Korea is another of the Asian Tiger economies and they, too, can quickly develop and field an entire nuclear arsenal in a few years. So can Taiwan.

Each of these Nations is seen as NO THREAT to further proliferation as they understand what it means to be a responsible Nation in this world, unlike North Korea and, in abdicating its responsibilities, China.

I do not mind seeing *responsible* non-Imperial Nations getting Nuclear Weapons for self-defense. I do mind, quite some bit, rogue regimes and those Nations built on local and global hegemony doing so. If China is unwilling to enforce the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in its own backyard with a Nation that it must *support* directly via transiting supplies to it, then it must be seen in breach of not only that Treaty, but as a threat to the entire region by not acting responsibly. China, by not enforcing this and acting responsibly has seen nuclear technology spread and then take foothold in India and Pakistan. Already hemmed in the north by Russia, China is now helping Iran to develop nuclear capability and will soon have that on their Western side to worry about beyond merely Pakistan. So it is time to turn up the heat and let it face an entire ring of Nuclear Armed Nations. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is effectively dead due to the AQ Khan network and North Korea doing separate development of the same technology. The Khan material shows just *how* to get nuclear devices made and now North Korea can start making and marketing them.

With the detonation of a Nuclear bomb by North Korea, the next thing that the United States should do is go forward with a 'Nuclear Neighborhood' plan for Our Friends and Allies being threatened by this development.

It is Just.

It is Fair.

And it is necessary to protect those that have been stalwart Allies to us for decades.

And let China stew in the juices of its Mighty Red Army that is impotent to protect the Nation by ending the North Korean threat.