Defiance

At 10:36 in the morning local time Oct. 9, North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test in a mountainous area northeast of Pyongyang. The U.S. Geological Survey—along with about 20 seismic stations from South Korea, Japan, China, and as far away as Ukraine, Australia, Nevada, and Wyoming—detected a tremor of 4.2 magnitude and of unnatural origin. On state television the regime announced it "manufactured up-to-date nuclear weapons" and would not rule out more tests in the future.

"And the devil came here yesterday," Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez told dignitaries gathered for the opening of the UN's 61st General Assembly, a reference to President George Bush. "Yesterday the devil came here. Right here." He paused to cross himself. "And it smells of sulfur still today." Such high-level defiance had not been seen in the UN's assembly hall since Nikita Khrushchev beat his shoe on the desk 46 years ago. Mr. Chavez railed that "the hegemonic pretensions of the American empire are placing at risk the very survival of the human species."