World Surveillance Group Inc (fka WSGI)

[Renaissance]

North Korea appeared to successfully fire a long-range rocket Wednesday

Pyongyang's state media quickly claimed that the country had succeed in its mission of putting a peaceful satellite into orbit with its long-range Unha-3 rocket. Officials at the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, said North Korea appeared to have put an object into space.

South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told a nationally televised news conference that a South Korean Aegis-equipped destroyer detected the launch at 9:51 a.m., local time, and the first stage fell into the Yellow Sea about a minute later; the rocket then flew over a South Korean island near the border with North Korea a minute after that. The rocket was seen flying west of Okinawa at 9:58 a.m., and then disappeared from South Korean radars, Kim said.

Japan protested the launch and said one part of the rocket landed west of the Korean Peninsula, and the Philippines said another part landed 300 kilometers (186 miles) east of the Philippines. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak planned an emergency national security council meeting Wednesday, and South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan warned that North Korea will face grave consequences.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_NKOREA_ROCKET_LAUNCH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-12-11-20-12-45

After Wednesday's launch, which saw the second stage of the rocket splash down in seas off the Philippines as planned, Japan's U.N. envoy called for a Security Council meeting. However, diplomats say further tough sanctions are unlikely to be agreed at the body as China, the North's only major ally, will oppose them.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/12/us-korea-north-rocket-idUSBRE8BB02K20121212

In June 2005, China began sea trials of its new Luyang II guided-missile destroyers. When the armaments were unveiled, jaws clenched in the Pentagon. The ships were equipped with a knockoff of the latest version of the U.S. Navy's Aegis battle management system, a critical command-and-control technology. The technology enables U.S.--and now Chinese--forces to simultaneously attack land targets, submarines and surface ships.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/news/3319656