For those who wouldn’t know Kim Jong Il’s uranium from his plutonium, the North Korean dictator’s boast that he is now experimenting with a second, uranium-based, route to the bomb may merit no more than a shrug. Yet it contains an urgent message for the world. Mr Kim has made a habit of defying the United Nations Security Council by conducting missile and nuclear tests. And the repeated, unabashed character of his nose-thumbing is encouraging others with nuclear ambitions to think they could get away with it too.

Right now that means Iran, in the dock again this week at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear guardian, over its refusal to provide answers about its own nuclear work. Just as troublingly, China and Russia, for years North Korea’s protectors at the UN, seem unready to learn the lesson from what Mr Kim is now doing and to restrain Iran. They should rethink their priorities before it is too late.

Nothing to hide?

Diplomats from America, Britain, France and Germany, along with China and Russia, are gearing up for another—possibly final—effort to persuade Iran to suspend its military nuclear work long enough to negotiate a package of incentives that could defang its ambitions. But the effort will fail unless Russia and China are also prepared to help threaten the sort of painful sanctions that might give even Iran’s committed nuclear enthusiasts pause. With Mr Kim only too eager to show where inaction can lead, what is stopping them?

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