U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney says North Korea helped the Syrians build a nuclear reactor which was bombed by Israel in 2007.

Cheney on Thursday told the Associated Press that North Korea will be a trouble spot that incoming president Barack Obama will have to watch and address.

The vice president also said that Pyongyang seems to have a continuing, ongoing program to produce highly enriched uranium.

Top Bush administration officials have said little publicly on the North’s alleged secret work on the reactor in Syria.