It's partly about a concern that, as Pakistan has done, North Korea and Iran will sell the technology to other countries or, worse, sell devices to other countries and even non-state actors. It's partly about having nukes in the hands of nutcases like Kim Jong Un or the next Ahmadinejad in Iran. Mostly it's about preventing other countries from gaining the means to stand up to us. We like being one of the few nuclear states. We get things that way.
Arming other nations to counterbalance the threat from states like North Korea and Iran is a non-starter. First of all it results in the proliferation of nuclear weapons, something no sane person wants. Second, it decreases our leverage in international affairs. Thirdly, with specific regard to the countries you mentioned, South Korea probably wouldn't want them. They might feel, with some justification, that just their possession of nukes would be enough "provocation for North Korea to launch. As for Japan, they have disavowed the manufacture and possession of nuclear weapons and are signatory to the Nuclear Nob-Proliferation Treaty. Being the only country to have ever suffered a nuclear attack, they have obvious reasons for disavowing them.
John
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Smoke me a kipper. I'll be back for breakfast.
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