With each passing day the forces of “inaction at any cost” (i.e., Russia and China) grow more flagrant in their opposition to any serious consequences for North Korea’s latest round of missile tests. Of all nations, Japan has been the most decisive in demanding that North Korea be held accountable for its latest transgressions. Unfortunately for the Japanese, they continue to cling to the belief that the solution to this problem with Pyongyang lies with the United Nations. As the UN has demonstrated throughout the course of history, it is not the solution, but the problem. The UN gives nations false hope of peace while coddling tyrants and dictators allowing those regimes to grow stronger and more difficult to confront.

Japan must come to the realization that if anything is to be done in confronting the North Koreas it must begin in Tokyo and Seoul, not in Washington and certainly not in New York. Given the fact that the South Korean government is paralyzed by fear, the only option is for Japan to remilitarize on a massive scale. The Japanese can’t in perpetuity rely on the US for security and they certainly can’t pin their hopes on the United Nations.

The Japanese government should work closely with the US to expand its self-defense force allowing it the capability to confront threats outside its border, with a heavy investment in anti-missile technology, satellite surveillance (both of which they have already begun to do), but also a greater investment in offensive military capability, which would give the Japanese the ability to strike North Korea missile and nuclear facilities before they can be mobilized against the US, Japan or South Korea.

It is quite possible that simply investing in this technology would compel the Russians and Chinese to assume a more assertive role in confronting the North Korean crisis, for fear of facing a new military power in Asia. Even if Russia and China remain firm in their opposition to confronting such threats to peace, Japan’s remilitarization would demand that the North respond in kind, leading to a Soviet style collapse as the North lacks the ability to finance such a strategy in the long term.
Link to Reuters article