NK launch site completed

North Korea has completed a launch tower at a missile launch facility in Tongchang-dong, Voice of America (VOA) reported Wednesday.

Showing new satellite imagery it had obtained, VOA said intelligence analysts of the United States and South Korea have watched the facility carefully.

Experts said that it is a major step in North Korea’s plan for an intercontinental ballistic missile that can strike the United States.

The satellite image revealed the site about a month after U.S. Defense Secretary Roberts Gates warned that North Korea is within five years of having the capability to strike America.

Tim Brown, an image analyst and senior fellow of Global Security.org, was quoted as saying it has taken North Korea about a decade to finish the facility.