U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said recently that U.S. intelligence suspects North Korea of possessing weapons-grade highly enriched uranium (HEU).

According to information released by the U.S. State Department on Wednesday, Rice said during an interview with the Washington Post that the intelligence community now believes that there is either imported or manufactured weapons-grade HEU in North Korea and that it is a problem.

During his final news conference in office on Monday, U.S. President George W. Bush also said he is concerned the North may have an HEU program and urged it to honor the commitments it made to allow for strong verification measures.