The director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency says North Korea is unlikely to eliminate its nuclear weapon capabilities in the foreseeable future.

Speaking at a Senate hearing Wednesday, Lieutenant General Ronald Burgess said the North believes nuclear weapons serve as a strategic deterrent and as leverage, while also counterbalancing the logistics shortages, aging equipment and insufficient training that plague its conventional forces.

Burgess’s statement is drawing attention as it comes shortly after U.S. intelligence officials said in a recent report that North Korea is seeking to gain recognition as a nuclear power and that Kim Jong-il's successors are unlikely to easily give up nuclear ambitions.