North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's younger sister on Tuesday criticized South Korean President Moon Jae In for being a "parrot" raised by the United States, days after Seoul urged Pyongyang to refrain from launching ballistic missiles.

In a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, Kim Yo Jong, a close aide to her brother, argued that Moon's government has test-fired ballistic missiles while asking the North not to do so.

Moon "doesn't have even the elementary logic and face," said Kim Yo Jong, who was introduced by state-run media for the first time as vice director of the Information and Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea.

"Such illogical and brazen-faced behavior of south Korea is exactly the same as the gangster-like logic of the U.S. faulting the right of the DPRK to self-defense as a violation of the U.N. 'resolutions' and 'threats' to the international community."

"He cannot feel sorry for being 'praised' as a parrot raised by America," she said, adding, "This could be what is described as self-contradictory and being caught in one's own trap. He is advised to sometimes think about how he is viewed by the world."

Later Tuesday, South Korea's Unification Ministry expressed regret over Kim Yo Jong's statement, saying the North, whose formal name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, must observe "the rules of minimum etiquette."

North Korea said Friday that it test-fired new tactical guided projectiles the previous day. Seoul said Pyongyang launched two short-range ballistic missiles in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions banning the North from using any ballistic missile technology.

Last Friday, Moon called North Korea's latest missile firing "undesirable" because it came amid efforts to resume stalled denuclearization talks.

"I am well aware of the fact that our people are deeply worried about North Korea's missile test launch," Moon said in a speech, adding that it is time for the two Koreas and the United States to "make efforts to continue dialogue."

Kim Yo Jong, meanwhile, quoted Moon as saying in July that South Korea has "reached the point of developing ballistic missiles with firing range and which are loadable with warhead with weight of the world's highest level enough to defend peace" on the Korean Peninsula.

In February 2018, Kim Yo Jong visited South Korea as a member of North's high-ranking delegation to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, becoming the first immediate family member of her grandfather and the country's founder, Kim Il Sung, ever to set foot in the South.

But she has apparently supervised policy matters relating to South Korea recently and stepped up provocations against Seoul to consolidate her status as effectively the nation's No. 2 figure, foreign affairs experts say.