In the second televised U.S. presidential debate, President Bush and Senator John F. Kerry locked horns over a wide breadth of issues.
In the town-hall format debate held in the U.S. state of Missouri with questions fielded by the audience, the Democratic nominee John Kerry said the Bush administration's lukewarm, lingering attitude in dealing with the communist North led them to possess some half dozen nuclear weapons.
He added the same criticism applies to nuclear issues in Russia and Iran.
Mr. Bush fired back calling Kerry's proposal of holding direct talks with Pyongyang, "naive and dangerous." Bush said that senator Kerry, an apparent advocate of multilateralism, is trying to foil the six-way talks struggling to resolve the North Korean nuclear impasse.
President Bush also touched on the realignment of U.S. forces, asserting the troop cutback in South Korea is meant to improve military capabilities by replacing ground troops with more effective weapons.