I agree in general with what you write here, with a big caveat: Korea is at the cross-roads between China and Japan, and throughout their history have been the

I agree in general with what you write here, with a big caveat: Korea is at the cross-roads between China and Japan, and throughout their history have been the battlefield between those two. Most recently, Korea suffered under a long and incredibly oppressive Japanese occupation up to the end of WW2. While Koreans are militarily ahem enthusiastic, it's not that Korea is the crazy man of Asia, prone to belligerence and expansionism. There's a long history there and a lot of justified anger on the part of Korea towards her neighbours.