With China Rising and Trump's Election, Japan Realizes Prospect of War Is Real

choi

Konrad Yakabuski (columnist), Japan's Existential Crisis. Toronto: Globe and  Mail, Dec 19, 2016.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/o ... is/article33354816/

Note: "Japan began to fear for its future in a region threatened by a fast-militarizing China and a nuclear-bound North Korea."
(a) The word "nuclear-bound" is not found in any Web dictionary.
(b) At first I was at loss to its meaning. Come to think about it, it is quite apparent.

bound (adj):
"2:  intending to go :  going <bound for home> <college-bound>"
"1:  placed under legal or moral restraint or obligation :  obliged <duty-bound>
2a :  fastened by or as if by a band :  confined <desk-bound>"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bound
(A) Two quotations -- each with its set of definitions -- because each has its own etymology (the second set comes as past participle of the verb "bind").
(B) Hence "nuclear-bound" (akin to "college-bound") means North Korea is on the way to the nuclear club -- but not yet.
(C) desk-bound (adj): "restricted to working in an office, rather than in an active, physical capacity  <he is no desk-bound theoretician>"
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/desk-bound

* Another example is "house-bound," describing an invalid who can not leave his own house due to severe physical limitations