REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, OSAKA -- Ethnic Koreans living in Japan are nervously watching growing tensions over North Korea and are wary of a possible backlash against their community as Pyongyang ramps up its sabre-rattling.

While public antipathy towards Koreans does not appear to have escalated in reaction to the North's latest nuclear test and missile launches, the community has been the target of abuse by Japanese nationalists after similar incidents in the past.

The North conducted its most powerful nuclear test ever last week, and in late August fired a ballistic missile over Hokkaido in northern Japan in a new show of force.

In the western Japanese city of Osaka -- home to the country's largest population of ethnic Koreans -- few are willing to talk publicly about North Korea, and those that do have mixed views on Pyongyang's actions.