Anchor: Experts in South Korea agree with North Korea's own assessment that its submarine missile launch on Wednesday was a success. They said South Korea as well as Guam and Hawaii could soon be theoretically under the North's radius of strike.
Our Kim In-kyung has more.
 
Report: South Korean military authorities had previously predicted that the North would be able to deploy submarine launched ballistic missiles(SLBM) in three to four years.
 
They cited the April test launch, where the North's projectile fell only 30 kilometers away after fired off from a submarine. That was far short of the 300-kilometer standard for an SLBM.
 
But the latest SLBM flew some 500 kilometers towards the East Sea before it dropped 80 kilometers into the Japanese Air Defense Identification Zone.  
 
Military sources said that the North intentionally reduced the flight range by increasing the firing angle. The missile could have flown more than one-thousand kilometers if it was fired at a lower angle.
 
Military authorities now believe that the North can extend the SLBM's flight range to more than two-thousand kilometers if it increases the amount of solid fuel.
 
Korea Defense and Security Forum researcher Shin Jong-woo told KBS that the North appears to have succeeded in applying the scud missile's controlling device and solid-fueled engine to its SLBM.
 
[Sound bite: Shin Jong-woo - researcher, Korea Defense and Security Forum (Korean)]
"We can call it a newly developed North Korean-style SLBM. Loading submarines with solid fuel missiles allows prolonged operations underwater."
 
At this point, experts are not ruling out the possibility that the North Korean submarine missiles can be combat-ready this year.
 
Professor Kim Dong-yup at Kyungnam University's Institute for Far Eastern Studies told KBS that considering the distance submarines travel, the North could have all of South Korea and Japan as well as Guam and Hawaii in its target range.
 
[Sound bite: Professor Kim Dong-yup - Institute for Far Eastern Studies, Kyungnam University (Korean)]
"Submarines can move as far as Hawaii. It means striking the U.S. mainland is possible. In fact, covert operations are possible by combining the roles of missiles."
 
Experts say that Seoul and Washington should alter its strategy against the North considering the imminence of the SLBM's threat.

Chief analytics officer for All Source Analysis Joseph Bermudez said at a forum that North Korea is developing bigger submarines than the two-thousand-ton Sinpo-class it current operates. 
Kim In-kyung, KBS World Radio News.