The rumor has it that the DPRK's access to nukes may prompt Japan and south Korea to go nuclear, fearful of its "threat".

It sounds plausible at first but one can easily guess this is a sheer speculation as it is a departure from a reality.

Humankind wishes to see a nuclear-free world.

Had countries vied with each other to have access to nukes because of nuclear threat there might have already appeared a great number of nuclear weapons states in the world.

When a country is exposed to very potential and serious nuclear threats and when it finds no other way to cope with them, it is compelled to have access to nukes as its last resort.

Japan and south Korea have long been under the U.S. "nuclear umbrella".

The U.S.-touted "nuclear umbrella" means giving its ally assurances that it will retaliate against other country's nuclear attack with nukes. This umbrella also means an institutional mechanism for putting them into practice.

It was after China's first nuclear test in 1964 that Japan was definitely put under the U.S. "nuclear umbrella".

At that time Japan claimed that China's access to nukes posed "threat" to it just as it is blaming the DPRK at present. This resulted in bolstering up the U.S. "nuclear umbrella" for Japan.

In the 1970s south Korea pursued a clandestine nuclear weapons development program only to be uncovered and curbed by its U.S. master. This helped south Korea to come under a more reliable U.S. "nuclear umbrella" in return for its abandoning of the nuclear development.

No one will believe the claims of Japan and south Korea that they are exposed to "nuclear threat" as they are under the "nuclear umbrella" of the U.S. which tops the world's list of nuclear weapons.

Moreover, the U.S. forces are present in Japan and south Korea on a permanent basis and the U.S. warships and airplanes equipped with nuclear weapons regularly visit Japan and south Korea to conduct ceaseless nuclear war exercises.

As seen above, one may safely say that both Japan and south Korea are practically armed with nuclear weapons.

But quite different is the case with the DPRK.

The DPRK has never been provided with any nuclear umbrella by outsiders to cope with the U.S. nuclear threat.

There was the "DPRK-USSR treaty of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance" in the period of the Soviet Union. But the USSR made no promise to protect the DPRK with its nuclear weapons in case the U.S. attacks the DPRK with nuclear weapons.

Worse still, the treaty came to an end with the collapse of the Soviet Union. And there is no legal obligation between the DPRK and Russia at present to render mutual assistance in case of emergency.

As far as the treaty of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance between the DPRK and China is concerned, it was concluded when China was a non-nuclear state. It is, therefore, quite irrelevant to the provision of "nuclear umbrella."

It is our view that China has pursued the policy of keeping "minimum nuclear deterrent" for protecting itself only.

In fact, China's existing nuclear armed forces are not big enough to protect other countries and they do not stand comparison with the nuclear armed forces of the U.S. threatening the DPRK, in particular. This is a well known fact.

It was only the DPRK that was left unprotected by nukes when south Korea and its neighboring countries were equipped with nuclear weapons or provided with nuclear umbrella.

Only danger of war will increase when one of the two hostile parties is armed with nuclear weapons or protected by a "nuclear umbrella" while the other remains defenseless, having none of them.

The DPRK's access to nukes helped keep a nuclear balance in Northeast Asia even in the least, thus making it possible to deter a war.

Some individual right-wing elements in Japan are crying out for going nuclear but this is not prompted by their worry about any threat.

What they seek is to go nuclear with the DPRK's access to nukes as a pretext and thus call back the departed soul of the militarists who attacked Pearl Harbor and worked hard to realize the "Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere." This is a reality of this region.

The arithmetic logic that Japan and south Korea may go nuclear because the DPRK has had access to nukes is an expression of ignorance of those who are bereft of an elementary sense. This is only part of a clumsy psychological warfare launched against the DPRK's access to nukes.