SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Amid rising tensions, North Korea threatened Japan today with ``merciless retaliation'' unless Tokyo atones for its colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

The strong words came in a statement issued to mark the 54th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japan on Aug. 15, 1945.

``If Japan opts to open good-neighborly relations through liquidation of the past, the (North) will welcome it with pleasure,'' said the statement, carried by the country's foreign news outlet, the Korean Central News Agency.

``But if it repeats its crime-woven history and undertakes a reckless provocation, the (North) will never miss the opportunity of meting out merciless retaliation,'' the statement said.

During Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule, Koreans were banned from using their Korean names and language. Millions of Korean men were conscripted into the Japanese army, and historians say up to 200,000 Korean women were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II.

Relations between North Korea and Japan have plunged to a new low amid reports that the North's communist government plans to test a long-range missile despite warnings against it from the United States, South Korea and Japan.

U.S. and Japanese officials say a North Korean missile launch will harm stability in the region, triggering an arms race. But North Korea says it has a ``sovereign right'' to test-fire missiles and accuses Washington and Tokyo of plotting to invade the North.

The awkwardly translated English statement from North Korea said: ``If Japan dare turn to showdown of strength in a bid to find a pretext to realize the wild ambition for reinvasion, we will have no option but to take a corresponding countermeasure.''

Japan normalized relations with South Korea in 1965 but has no official ties with North Korea. The two Koreas were divided after World War II and fought in the 1950-53 Korean War.

Several years of normalization talks between Tokyo and Pyongyang have made little progress. A major sticking point arose when North Korea sent a rocket sailing over Japan into the Pacific Ocean last August. The test demonstrated that Japan is well within reach of North Korean missiles.

In retaliation, Japan has suspended food aid. It has threatened to impose further economic and other sanctions if North Korea fires another missile.

Japan today said it was prepared to improve ties with Pyongyang if the North was ready to abandon its nuclear weapons and missile programs and resolve other pending issues between the two countries.

``We believe it is important to respond (to North Korea) by balancing dialogue,'' said Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka, the main government spokesman.

Meanwhile, the United States and South Korea today announced plans to conduct a large-scale joint military exercise next week. The annual exercise, code-named Ulji Focus Lens, will run for 12 days starting Monday, with 14,000 U.S. soldiers and 56,000 South Korean troops participating, a joint statement said.

The United States and South Korea hold several joint exercises each year. North Korea routinely protests such exercises, calling them preparations for war against it.

-- Johnny (JLJTM@BELLSOUTH.NET), August 10, 1999

Answers

Updated 2:13 AM ET August 10, 1999 TOKYO, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Two U.S. Navy ships equipped with missile- tracking radar systems have left a U.S. Naval base in southern Japan, a base official confirmed on Tuesday. The 17,015-tonne USS Observation Island and 2,262-tonne USS Invincible left Sasebo Naval Base near Nagasaki, the official said.

He said it was purely coincidental that the two ships left port on the same day and denied that they were on a joint mission.

"The Navy does not discuss the operation of their ships," the official said.

The departures on Monday have sparked speculation the ships will monitor an expected test-launch of a new North Korean ballistic missile.

Both ships belong to the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command in charge of missile data collection and are equipped with radar systems capable of tracking the launch and flight of ballistic missiles.

Washington, Tokyo and Seoul have warned Pyongyang against its suspected preparations for test-firing a new, long-range Taepodong 2 missile capable of reaching parts of the United States.

Japan's Kyodo news agency on Tuesday quoted Sasebo base sources saying the USS Observation Island would shortly join the USS Invincible and the USS Los Angeles, a 6,080-ton nuclear-powered submarine which it said also left Sasebo on Monday.

It said the USS Observation Island is believed to have monitored North Korea's launch last August of a missile that passed over Japan and landed in the Pacific, igniting concern in Tokyo and other capitals about the threat posed to North Korea's neighbours by Pyongyang's missile programme.

-- Johnny (JLJTM@BELLSOUTH.NET), August 10, 1999.

Thanks for the site. I've never been there before. Boy Kim really has the people thinking he and his family are Korean patriots.

And all that hatred of the Japenese Do the South Koreans feel the same way or has it subsided w/time like here in the U.S.?

-- Johnny (JLJTM@BELLSOUTH.NET), August 10, 1999.

This type of thing is a distraction from something that is going on internally. Are they still starving--or starving AGAIN? Does anyone know? Of course they hate the Japanese. THe Japanese have always hated THEM. It's just the way things are. THere are JApanese of KOrean extraction who are despised,

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWayne@aol.com), August 10, 1999.

Yes they are still starving but this time its not due to drought

The BBC reported: "North Korea has warned that its grain harvest will drop sharply this year due to torrential rains and a typhoon which battered the peninsula. The internationally isolated Communist state has requested food aid to the areas damaged by Typhoon Olga which struck the Korean peninsula and east Asia on 3 August...the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has warned that flooding could have a lasting impact on the country. The head of the organization's delegation to North Korea said that if rice paddies were flooded for more than 48 hours they were likely to suffer permanent damage. North Korea has been experiencing more than five years of famine brought about by successive years of flooding which have exacerbated an already inefficient food production system..."

-- Johnny (JLJTM@BELLSOUTH.NET), August 11, 1999.