North Korea halts work on long-range rocket site?

North Korea has halted construction at a long-range rocket launch facility in the country's northeast region, a US think tank has said.

According to a new analysis of recent satellite imagery, North Korea stopped construction on the launch pad, rocket assembly building and launch control centre at the Tonghae satellite launching ground, reported Xinhua citing a US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University report.

Construction at the site gradually slowed and then stopped at the end of last year, though the reason for the stoppage remains unclear, the report said.

The new facilities were intended to launch rockets larger than the Unha-3 space launch vehicle that put a North Korea satellite into orbit last December.

However, US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said she needed to verify if Washington had engaged in an independent evaluation of the analysis.

The US and some other countries believe that Pyongyang uses rocket launches as a cover for work on missiles.