North Korea on Monday accused the Japanese government of 'kow-towing to the US' by stepping up its own sanctions on the communist state.
Rodong Sinmun, the daily of the ruling communist party, called Tokyo "a servant of the US and its political waiting maid" by applying pressure on North Korea and on pro-Pyongyang residents in Japan.
"It is foolhardy of Japan to eye a responsible post at the UN," Rodong also said in reference to Tokyo's bid for a UN Security Council permanent seat.
"No country will trust Japan as it is going reckless, just copying the behaviour of its American master, still not free from the bad practice of kow-towing to the US and toeing its line."
Tokyo has imposed sweeping sanctions banning all North Korean imports in response to its October 9 underground nuclear test.
Japan was already locked in a standoff with North Korea over its ballistic missile tests in July and kidnapping of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s.
North Korea last month agreed to return to six-nation nuclear disarmament talks on ending its nuclear program. The talks involve the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.
But the North called for Japan to quit the talks over Tokyo's insistence that Pyongyang not be treated as a nuclear-armed nation during the forum.