An oxidative N-S bond formation reaction has been established for 1,2,4-thiadiazole synthesis employing molecular iodine as the sole oxidant. The features of the present reaction include no use of transition metals, mild reaction conditions, simple operation, and short reaction time. This versatile synthetic approach is broadly applicable to a variety of imidoyl and guanyl thiourea substrates to produce 5-amino and 3,5-diamino substituted 1,2,4-thiadiazole derivatives, respectively, in an efficient and scalable fashion.