Go Big John!

Kerry calls Bush out for his indifference to North Korea and its low priority in his administration. Quite possibly at a very high cost.

In an interview, he argued that President Bush's preoccupation with Iraq let the North Korean crisis fester to the point that there were now indications that the country might be preparing to test a plutonium bomb. He presented his charges in a 15-minute telephone call he made to The New York Times.

Meanwhile, American intelligence officials and policy makers scrambled to determine what caused a huge fire spotted Thursday on North Korea's border with China. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said Sunday that the fire, apparently caused by an explosion, was "not any kind of nuclear event," but he confirmed a report in The Times on Sunday that "there is activity going on at a potential nuclear test site," adding that "we're monitoring this."

While intelligence analysts are still debating whether the activity is a harbinger of a test, Mr. Kerry insisted that the fact that North Korea was threatening such an action was a sign of failed diplomacy. "I think that this is one of the most serious failures and challenges to the security of the United States, and it really underscores the way in which George Bush talks the game but doesn't deliver," he said.

In the past, Mr. Kerry has accused Mr. Bush of ignoring a far larger nuclear threat in North Korea because of his determination to oust Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

"They have taken their eye off the real ball," Mr. Kerry said, his voice almost shaking in anger. "They took it off in Afghanistan and shifted it to Iraq. They took it off in North Korea and shifted it to Iraq. They took it off in Russia, and the nuclear materials there, and shifted it to Iraq."

Mr. Kerry's basic argument, that the Iraq war has diverted attention from more dangerous nations like North Korea, is one he has often used on the campaign trail and in interviews over the past several months. But his language on Sunday, calling the situation "a nuclear nightmare" and directly accusing Mr. Bush of leaving the United States more vulnerable to North Korea, was far harsher and more incendiary than the language he has used before.

Good for Kerry.