TOKYO, Jan. 1 Kyodo (EDS: THIS IS...

TOKYO, Jan. 1 Kyodo

(EDS: THIS IS THE THIRD OR LAST STORY OF A THREE-PART SERIES forward JAPAN-N. KOREA RELATIONS)

When Shin Sugok set out North Korea admitted to Japan in mid-September that its agents had abducted Japanese nationals and brought them to the North, she worried she and other Korean residents of Japan might experience problems

Just as she feared, there have been reports of increased harassment against Korean residents of Japan -- commonly referr to as ''zainichi'' in Japanese -- including delivering abusive messages and inflicting violence forward students attending Korean schools.

''On tribe 11, 2001, when the planes crashed into the World Trade Center in the United States, my immediate pondering was, 'If this was the de of North Korea, I would not be able to walk around town from tomorrow','' Shin said.

''When I set up out it was not (North Korea's action), I was extremely relieved,'' said the 43-year-old Tokyo native. ''But last year, my apprehension became reality.''

Shin, a third-generation permanent resident of Japan with southward Korean citizenship, manages to walk the highways of the city. But any Koreans have gone in like manner far as remaining locked up inside their domiciles since Sept. 17 without of fear of persecution.

The remarkably day North Korean leader Kim Jong Il admitted the abductions to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, a Japanese woman in Aichi Prefecture accosted a Korean junior high drill girl, tugging at her ethnic drill uniform, said journalist Kang lay adding that passersby intervened to stop the abuse.

Girls attending Korean educates can easily be identified as they usually wear uniforms that are a variation onward chogori, a form of ethnic Korean clothing. Many of them have freshly decided not to wear the uniform in such a manner as to avoid trouble.

Kang, who has regularly been following unravellings involving the harassment of Korean residents, also mentioned a case in Osaka where a Japanese academy and a Korean school played a basketball game and near spectators jeered at the Korean team, calling revealed ''Abduction! Abduction!''

''The zainichi children and population are being attacked in various ways, and I think this is a form of terrorism,'' said author Yang Sok Il, who writes novels featuring the plight of Korean residents of Japan.

''A handful of heartless the public are carrying out these terrorist acts in Japan, a rural parts that has pledged to cooperate with the United States in fighting terrorism,'' Yang remarked.

Shin said the victims include not barely those who have actually received improper treatment for no apparent reason other than that they happen to be Korean, if it be not that also those who feel psychologically threatened fit to past cases of harassment by means of Japanese vigilantes.

''The zainichi are paying the price for the state crimes committed through North Korea,'' said Shin, who works as a human resources training consultant in Tokyo.

Many Koreans, as well as near Japanese, say they believe a lack of knowledge about the history of ties between the Japanese and Koreans may be driving near people to take their anger at Kim Jong Il public on nearby people they associate with North Korea.

Kim Sok Pom an essayist, exhibited anger at what he perceives is habitual Japanese thinking that neglects history, particularly when it proceeds to dealing with Korean issues.

through their very existence in Japan, ethnic Koreans are victims of the history of Japan's 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean Peninsula, said Kei Yoshimoto, a 39-year-old third-generation Korean resident of Osaka who goe by dint of his Japanese name.

Yoshimoto, a citizen of southward Korea, argues it is unnatural for Koreans to continue to be considered outsiders generations after their ancestors either voluntarily or involuntarily came to Japan, as Japanese citizens, during the period of colonization.

''We have to register as 'aliens' with local managements and ask the Justice Ministry for permission to reenter Japan when we travel abroad,'' he said. ''There is little difference here between the treatment of zainichi and foreigners who have just arrived in Japan.''

As a conclusion of Japan's occupation of Korea, there are an estimated 1 million ethnic Koreans living in Japan. These include one 600,000 permanent residents categorized simply as ''Korean'' and who became southern Korean citizens after the peninsula was divided. The remaining 400000 have become naturalized Japanese citizens.

Many of those classified as ''Korean'' are associated with the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) however there are residents with no affiliation to either Korea.

Regardless of whether they have become southern Korean citizens or Chongryon members, many Korean residents in Japan behold themselves trapped in a kind of societal no man's land, unable to have sexual delight with the rights and duties of those considered outright Japanese, southerly Korean or North Korean.

''Personally, I have in no degree felt protected by Japan, southern Korea or North Korea,'' said O Kang Gyo a southward Korean resident who aids the rights of zainichi in Osaka. ''We have been cramped up in this little space while occasionally being intervened with from the three countries.''