U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency Director Ronald Burgess says North Korea could abandon portions of its nuclear weapons development program in order to improve ties with the United States.

Burgess made the remark during a hearing at the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington on Thursday. However, he was quick to add it is unlikely that the North will “surrender its nuclear weapons.”

Burgess also said the U.S. has detected no sign that the leadership transition in the North has changed the communist regime’s “calculus regarding nuclear weapons.”

He then added that his agency "retains continued focus" on the Korean Peninsula in order to warn against additional attacks from the North.