Lock-on phenomenon in the wake of a circular cylinder is investigated at the Reynolds number of 360 using direct numerical simulation (DNS). To induce lock-on, a streamwise velocity perturbation with a frequency of twice the natural shedding frequency is superimposed on the free stream velocity. The Reynolds stress distributions are investigated to analyze the streamwise force balance acting on the recirculation region and the results are compared with the previous experimental result. When the lock-on occurs, the pressure force on the recirculation region is shown to increase mainly due to the reversal of the Reynolds shear stress distribution, which is consistent with our previous results using PIV measurement. It is also shown that, with the lock-on, the strength of the primary vortices increases whereas that of the secondary vortices decreases significantly. Further, under the lock-on condition the wavelength of the secondary vortices increases by as much as 2.5 times.