South Koreas recent admission that rogue scientists had refined a minute (less than an ounce) of uranium to nuclear weapons quality levels, is another indication of how easy it would be for several of the highly industrialized nations of East Asia to quickly build nuclear weapons. In addition to South Korea, nations like Japan and Taiwan are also capable of designing and manufacturing nuclear weapons. An old joke among journalists and scientists in Japan is that this would not take more than six months. Taiwan, of course, is threatened by Chinese invasion if the Taiwanese people vote to declare independence. The possibility of such a vote might well cause Taiwan to build nukes, as this would be one way to forestall a Chinese invasion. It might also lead to a nuclear war. A threat like this could persuade Japan to build nuclear weapons as well. This nuclear weapons building capability has been a problem in East Asia for several decades, and wont ever go away, until all these countries actually build nuclear weapons.