WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. John Kerry has called on President Bush to back up his pledge to fight nuclear proliferation with far more action than he has shown so far.
"Nothing the president proposed ... will be successful unless the administration reverses course and undertakes serious and sustained cooperation in law enforcement, intelligence gathering and diplomacy to halt nuclear proliferation," the Massachusetts senator said in a statement earlier this week.
"Despite today's rhetoric, the Bush administration continues to underfund our Nunn-Lugar efforts to protect nuclear materials and technology in the Soviet Union and the administration has stood on the sidelines while North Korea developed an advanced nuclear capacity," he said.
Kerry said it was "good to hear that the president finally acknowledged how critical coperation with other countries is in solving the critical national security challenge of weapons proliferation." But he added, "Cooperation is not just a few lines in a speech, it is crucial to safeguarding our national security."
Kerry, a decorated Vietnam war hero, is seeking to challenge Bush's national security credentials in his own presidential campaign.
