Key Points

Lee's visit to the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) in the central city of Daejeon came as the government is ramping up efforts to restore online services as the fire destroyed major data storage systems, Yonhap News Agency reported.

As of Friday, the restoration rate of the centre's administrative services stood at 30.2 per cent.

Lee had originally taken the day off following the extended Chuseok holiday, which ended Thursday, but decided to visit the state data centre.

Observers say Lee's decision to visit the data centre on his day off was apparently aimed at mitigating a controversy over his recent appearance on a TV cooking show amid a nationwide outage of online government services caused by the fire.

The ruling Democratic Party has defended Lee's appearance as "well-suited to promote K-foods," while the main opposition People Power Party has denounced it as inappropriate.

The government has also faced criticism over its response to the incident when it revised the number of malfunctioning systems from 647 to 709 only two weeks after the fire broke out.

"The visit was arranged to encourage public officials who have been working tirelessly even during the holiday," a presidential official told Yonhap News Agency. "The visit was scheduled in advance and is not related to Lee's appearance on the show."

The fire broke out on September 26, burning batteries and servers, and crippling around 700 online government services, before being completely extinguished the following day.

As of midnight on Thursday, 214 out of 709 online administrative services hit by the fire at the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) in the central city of Daejeon had been brought back online, marking a restoration rate of 30.2 per cent, according to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters.

Among the restored services are the Public Procurement Service's next-generation comprehensive shopping mall, the interior ministry's central permanent records management system, the finance ministry's National Assembly business support system and the land ministry's real estate administration intelligence system. During the weeklong extended Chuseok holiday that began October 3, a total of 47 systems returned to normal.

- IANS