U.S. Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards says if John Kerry is elected the next U.S. President, Washington would push to give asylum and protect nuclear scientists from abroad, including North Korea.

Edwards made the remarks Monday in a speech at the University of North Carolina in Wilmington.

He said a Kerry administration would create a "Nuclear Whistleblower Initiative" in which the United States would give asylum and protection to any scientist in a foreign country ? particularly North Korea and Iran ? who discloses the existence of an illicit weapons program.

Edwards denounced the Bush administration for "failure of leadership," saying the current administration erred in standing by while North Korea and Iran advanced their nuclear weapons programs.