Key Points

The official, who had led a team overseeing the recovery efforts, fell to his death at the government complex in the central city of Sejong earlier in the day.

"I pray for the repose of the deceased, who dedicated himself until the very last moment of his life to fulfill his mission as a public servant, and I express sorrow and mourning together with the people," Lee wrote on Facebook.

Lee said the late official carried out his duties with a sense of responsibility to swiftly ease public inconvenience and restore the normal functions of the government, Yonhap News Agency reported.

"We will never forget his sacrifice and devotion, made behind the scenes, to restore the daily lives of the people and help the nation overcome its crisis," Lee added.

The fire broke out last Friday at the National Information Resources Service in Daejeon, about 140 kilometers south of Seoul, burning batteries and servers and crippling 647 online government services.

In the evening, Kang Hoon-sik, Lee's chief of staff, and Prime Minister Kim Min-seok, visited the official's funeral in Sejong to pay their respects.

Earlier in the day, South Korean government said it will speed up the restoration of online government services affected by last week's fire at the state data management agency during the extended Chuseok holiday.

South Korea's Interior Minister Yun Ho-jung made the remark during a government meeting, as the restoration rate for the 647 services stood at 17.8 per cent, a week after the fire at the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) in Daejeon, about 140 kilometers south of Seoul, caused a massive systems outage.

"The government will accelerate the restoration with exceptional determination, while treating the seven-day holiday as golden time for recovery," he said during the meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters. "The government will respond thoroughly to ensure no gaps in administrative services and safety management during the holiday."

The seven-day break, which covers Chuseok, National Foundation Day and Hangeul Day, began Friday and runs through next Thursday.

Yun said the government is in talks with the presidential office and the financial authorities to secure reserve funds for the NIRS' restoration and relocation of damaged systems to an NIRS branch in the southeastern city of Daegu.

"Normalising computer network failures is expected to take time," he said. "We plan to select key systems directly related to people's everyday lives and come up with separate management systems for them."

- IANS