Is Missile Defense Expansion In Asia Being Used to Pressure China?

Via One Free Korea comes this Yonhap article that explains how missile defense is one area the US can use to pressure China to reign in North Korean provocations:

The deployment of ballistic missile defense systems around North Korea by the United States and its allies could be an effective way to change China’s strategic thinking about Pyongyang, a U.S. congressional report said.

The Congressional Research Service made the point in a recent report, “North Korea: U.S. Relations, Nuclear Diplomacy, and Internal Situation,” saying Beijing would find it not in its national interest if provocative actions by the North lead to increased military deployments in the region.

When North Korea fired a long-range rocket in April 2012, a key focus of Chinese media coverage of the case was Patriot missile deployments that were made by the U.S. and its allies in response to the North’s launch, the report noted.

A subtext of those reports was that the North’s actions are feeding military developments that are not in China’s interests, it said.

“As part of the efforts by the United States and its allies to change China’s strategic thinking about North Korea, the BMD (ballistic missile defense) deployments may have an impact,” the report said. “Many observers, particularly in the United States and Japan, argue that continued North Korean ballistic missile development increases the need to bolster regional BMD capabilities and cooperation.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link as well as over at One Free Korea who also believes that South Korea and Japan should also move towards developing their own nuclear arsenals to further pressure China.