Parties clash over Lee's appearance on TV cooking show

President Lee Jae Myung, right, and first lady Kim Hea Kyung discuss Korean food on popular JTBC cooking show “Please Take Care of My Refrigerator," which aired Monday evening during the Chuseok holiday. Captured from JTBC Youtube

The ruling and opposition parties on Tuesday sparred over President Lee Jae Myung's appearance on a TV cooking show amid criticism that it was not appropriate to appear on an entertainment program amid a fire-caused outage of online government services.

Late last month, Lee and first lady Kim Hea Kyung took part in a special broadcast of JTBC's cooking show "Please Take Care of My Refrigerator" in a bid to promote Korean foods. The cable TV channel aired the recording of the episode on Monday night, this year's Chuseok fall harvest holiday.

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) defended Lee's appearance as well-suited to promote K-foods, while the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) insisted Lee's appearance on a TV entertainment show was not appropriate in the midst of the outage of online government services caused by last month's fire at a state data center.

"Lee's appearance on the TV show was aimed at promoting K-foods to the world and facilitating exports of Korean cuisine," Rep. Boo Seung-chan, spokesperson for the DPK, said in a written briefing.

He called on the PPP and its leader Jang Dong-hyeok to apologize for causing a political stir during the Chuseok holiday and to join the DPK's efforts to revive the people's livelihoods.

The PPP denounced Lee's appearance as a broadcast designed to promote himself.

"In the midst of the national disaster, the scene of Lee smiling on an entertainment show cannot be understood from the public's common sense," Rep. Choi Bo-yun, spokesperson for the PPP, said.