PYONGYANG, March 12 (Xinhua) -- The official media of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Monday sneered at Japan as a "subject state" of the United States, in view of its continuous attempt to stifle the DPRK economically through sanctions with the backing of Washington.

The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a commentary that since the United States announced "independent sanctions" on the DPRK last month, Japan has "gone reckless, voicing support for them and calling for the inspection of ships of the DPRK."

"The frenzy of the islanders (Japanese) has reached the extreme as evidenced by their call for the convocation of an international conference for the inspection of DPRK-flagged ships which even the U.S. failed to conceive," it said.

Japan is "jeered by the world for its serious dependence on the U.S. and subjugation to it in the political, economic and military fields," said the KCNA.

Meanwhile, the DPRK media strongly condemned Japan for the massacre of sex slaves from Korea during World War II, which was published in a newly disclosed video shot in 1944 in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

Pyongyang has also warned Japan against taking any move to persecute resident Koreans in Japan, after a shooting incident took place against a pro-DPRK Korean association's headquarters in Tokyo last month.