Amid rising tensions due to the war on Iran, there is a renewed debate regarding whether South Korea and Japan might develop their own nuclear deterrents. The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has recently sounded an alarm about the issue.

War on Iran has changed many things, not least of which is the tenor of nuclear debate in two of America’s closest Asian allies: countries that have long defined themselves by the weapons they do not possess. For decades, the question of whether South Korea and Japan might one day build their own nuclear arsenal was treated as fringe speculation – the preserve of hawks and provocateurs. No longer. The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has sounded the alarm....