ANNE APPLEBAUM writes that North Korea is China’s problem:

For not only is China the country with the most influence over North Korea, it is also, along with South Korea and Japan, one of the countries most under threat from North Korean nukes. After all, it is China, not the United States, that will be at the center of the new Asian arms race if Japan and South Korea feel compelled to get the bomb. It is China, not the United States, that would feel the effects of fallout if North Korea actually used its weapons. Although it isn’t clear whether North Korean missiles can reach Hawaii, it’s obvious that Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong are well within range. So shouldn’t this be China’s problem, not ours?

It has seemed odd to me all along that the Chinese don’t seem more worried about having a kook with nukes actually on their border. It also seems odd that neither Russia nor China — both much closer to Iran, and both with a Muslim problem in their nearby territories — aren’t more worried about Iran acquiring nukes.

UPDATE: Maybe they are: A NATO/Russia missile defense exercise. Seems to me that it would be easier to stop the Iranians from getting nukes, though — unless, that is, they already have them.