Lee visits fire-damaged state data center
President Lee Jae Myung, second from left, inspects equipment at the National Information Resources Service in the central city of Daejeon, Friday. Courtesy of presidential office
President Lee Jae Myung on Friday visited a state data center damaged by a major fire last month to inspect recovery efforts, the presidential office said.
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.
As of Friday, the restoration rate of the center's administrative services stood at 30.2 percent.
Lee had originally taken the day off following the extended Chuseok holiday, which ended Thursday, but decided to visit the state data center.
Observers say Lee's decision to visit the data center 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 Sept. 26, burning batteries and servers, and crippling around 700 online government services, before being completely extinguished the following day.