The latest outburst came just days after Pyongyang demanded Japan be excluded from the next round of six-nation talks into its nuclear weapons program.

"Japan's moves for military build-up and overseas expansion have gone to extremes and the threat of missile and re-invasion comes from Japan to the DPRK (North Korea)," the North's official Korean Central News Agencysaid in a statement, citing a Rodong Sinmun newspaper signed commentary.

"Closely following Japan's reckless moves, the army and people of Korea recognize that they should approach Japan with arms not words," it said.

Six-nation talks involving North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, China and Russia ended inconclusively in Beijing in August but with an agreement to meet again.

But Pyongyang has upped its rhetoric since then, saying it had produced enough weapons-grade plutonium for six atomic bombs, and on Tuesday calling Washington's idea of a multilateral non-aggression guarantee an "empty piece of paper."

Analysts however saw North Korea's recent statements as an attempt to bolster its hand ahead of a new round of talks, expected before the end of the year.

Japan's foreign ministry has said it rejected Pyongyang's demands to exclude it from talks, calling the nuclear threat an international, not bilateral problem.

Japan's Defense Agency said in August it would request 142 billion yenbillion dollars) in next year's budget to buy sea-based SM-3 missiles and land-based PAC-3 systems to protect major cities and other strategic areas from incoming ballistic missile attacks.

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