Why has North Korea targeted Japan?

The relationship between North Korea and Japan is severely strained. There are a lot of Japanese people who believe that North Korea is one of the most challenging countries to deal with. They are actually the most negative in viewing the current state of North Korea. This may have stemmed from the fact that there are some reports stating that a lot of Japanese people were abducted by North Korea back in the 70s and 80s.

The view of Japan about North Korea is negative. They do not even recognize North Korea as a sovereign state. This explains why if South Korea would unite with North Korea in the future, the ties of Japan and Korea, in general, will become even worse.

Relations between North Korea and Japan have been brittle for almost half a century. Problemsbetween the two nations started after the Korean War when Japan began havingcordial relations with South Korea and established trade routes. North Korea tried to disrupt these routes and wanted to deter trade with South Korea. Relations improved in the 1970's when Japan established equidistant trade relations with both Koreas. However, Japan refused to have diplomatic relations with DPRK, and favored China and to an extent South Korea.

Things got sour in the late 80's when Japanese citizens who settled in North Korea weren't allowed to return or contact their families. North Korea started housing Japanese terrorist groups and didn't pay debts to trading companies. The Japnese also put economic sanctions on DPRK for attacks on South Korea which further deteriorated relations. A new low was reached when Korea tested their nuclear-capable ballistic missiles on Aug 29, 2017, and Sept 17, 2017, over the Japanese island of Hokkaido which landed in the Pacific. These instancescompletely destroyed any positive relations between Japan and North Korea.