Anchor: North Korea has test launched what it claims to be an intercontinental nuclear ballistic missile. Missile experts agreed with North Korea's announcement that the projectile can reach as far as the U.S. capital of Washington D.C.
Kim Bum-soo has more. 
 
Report: It was 3:17 in the morning when the South Korean military detected the missile launch from North Korea. 
 
In an unusually prompt move, North Korean media on Wednesday afternoon officially claimed the successful launch of what it called a Hwasong-15 intercontinental nuclear ballistic missile. 
 
[Sound bite: N. Korean broadcaster KRT announcement (Nov. 29)]
"The new Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic rocket was successfully test fired as it was developed under the political and strategic decision of the Workers' Party of Korea."
"The intercontinental ballistic missile system Hawsong-15 can be loaded with an ultra-heavy nuclear warhead to strike any area in the entire U.S. mainland."  
 
The missile soared as high as some 45-hundred kilometers, flying some 960 kilometers or the farthest a North Korean projectile has reached, before dropping in the Japanese exclusive economic zone. 
 
Many missile experts agreed that if the weapon had been fired at a normal angle, it could have flown all the way to Washington D.C. 
 
The state-run TV said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was at the launch site to oversee what it called the "historic achievement."
 
[Sound bite: N. Korean broadcaster KRT announcement (Nov. 29)]
"Comrade Kim Jong-un declared that the historical completion of national nuclear weapons capability has been achieved finally today as he watched the successful launch of the new intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-15."
 
While seeking to evade U.S. satellite surveillance by launching the projectile before dawn, the North also chose unusual Pyongsong, South Pyongan Province for its mobile launch site. 
 
The latest missile launch comes 75 days after the North fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile on September 15th, which flew over Japan and landed in the northern Pacific Ocean. 
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.