Nobel Prizes aren't awarded for brilliancy. They're ostensibly awarded for contributions to science. Since that generally involves discovering something new,

Nobel Prizes aren't awarded for brilliancy. They're ostensibly awarded for contributions to science. Since that generally involves discovering something new, it's really no surprise that members of the Manhattan Project (who were working in a previously unexplored area of physics, with gigantic resources at their command) would make some momentous discoveries. Contrary to this, the Iranians and North Koreans aren't working on anything new (at least not under the auspices of the nuclear energy/bomb project). So don't expect many Nobel Prizes to come their way. They're rehashing a tried and true path, with a lot of information (both in the public domain, along with probably a good deal of stolen classified material) available to them that the members of the Manhattan Project did not have. That isn't to say that there aren't any brilliant Iranian and North Korean physicists working on the project. I'm sure they've got the cream of the crop in Iran and North Korea. But just because they're working on this doesn't make them world class physicists.