SEOUL: North Korea’s latest missile launch drew more exasperated sighs from those trying to force it give up nuclear weapons but is, say analysts, barely a blip in the glacier-like process of disarming the hermit state.

In the singular world of North Korea diplomacy, where a deal is rarely quite a deal, few see much alternative to pressing on with a four-month-old international accord to end Pyongyang’s dreams of nuclear prowess, even though it is at the moment pinioned by a separate banking dispute.

“I don’t give significant weight to this (Thursday’s missile launch),” said Kim Sung-han, analyst with the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, which is affiliated to South Korea’s foreign ministry.

He said major regional powers – China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States – had no choice but to try to force the North to eventually act on its Feb 13 pact to denuclearise.

In its second launch in as many weeks, North Korea on Thursday fired up to two short-range missiles off its West coast, incurring speedy US criticism.

The launch came a day after both US and Japan leaders said their patience was wearing thin over the impoverished country’s refusal to honour its deal to disarm in exchange for massive energy aid.The first deadline of that deal, to start closing the North’s nuclear reactor and source of atomic weapons material, passed two months ago without action.

North Korea has refused to comply until there is a solution to returning funds that were frozen under US pressure in a Macau bank, Banco Delta Asia, a move that effectively ostracised Pyongyang from the international banking system.

The communist state insists that rather than collect the $25 million itself, the money be transferred via an intermediary bank.—Reuters