A U.S. daily says the Defense Intelligence Agency, a subsidiary body of the U.S. Defense Department, believes North Korea may already have produced as many as 15 nuclear weapons.

A recent Newsday article quoted a DIA official as saying that the North could have between a dozen and 15 atomic bombs.

Another intelligence official who works for a separate agency said the DIA's estimate is at the high end of a recent intelligence community-wide assessment of North Korea's nuclear arsenal. On the other hand, he said the CIA had lowballed the estimate at two to three bombs while the Department of Energy's analysis put it somewhere in between.

Before the recent DIA assessment, the upper number from the intelligence community had been eight to nine.

The DIA's estimates reflect a belief within some U.S. government sectors that North Korea has steadily increased its production of atomic bombs during the first four years of the Bush administration.

John Pike, a defense expert for globalsecurity.org. said the DIA estimate is closer to the mark than that given by the CIA.