Tokyo, Nov. 11 : The North Korean Government has warned Japan that it could order its military forces to stop and board Japanese ships operating in the Sea of Japan or shadow military or civilian aircraft close to its territory if Tokyo steps up its sanctions against Pyongyang.

The Telegraph quoted the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the North Korean Worker''s Party, as saying in its editorial that Pyongyang would take "ultra-hardline" steps against Japan if Prime Minister Taro Aso introduces new measures designed to win the release of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korean agents.

The newspaper did not elaborate on the steps that it might take, but Kim Myong-Chol, executive director of the Center for U. S.-North Korea Peace and the mouthpiece for Pyongyang, said the regime would defy Tokyo.

He also suggested that North Korea would break off all contacts with Japan and insist that Tokyo''s representatives be removed from the six-nation talks on the dismantling of North Korea''s nuclear weapons programme.

"Boarding a Japanese ship would be seen around the world as an act of war and while North Korea has done a lot of things to show that it is mean, I do not think they are mad," said Robert Dujarric, a professor at Temple University in Tokyo. (ANI)