South Korea's culture minister Thursday rapped a top hotel for turning away a restaurant guest wearing a traditional hanbok dress, after the incident sparked an Internet storm of protest.

Minister Choung Byoung-Gug called the incident "unacceptable" and vowed to take "stern measures" against Seoul's Hotel Shilla, which is owned by the country's top business group Samsung.

Lee Hye-Soon, a celebrated designer of the widely-flared dress, said she was refused admission to the hotel's buffet restaurant Tuesday night after a manager said the outfit may inconvenience other guests.

"How could I not enter a hotel wearing the traditional dress of my own country?" Chosun Ilbo newspaper quoted Lee as saying.

"I felt like our own culture has been insulted."

The incident sparked public indignation, prompting the hotel to issue a statement apologising "deeply and respectfully".

The hotel said employees were only advised to warn customers in hanbok to take care when moving about, to avoid tripping other customers.

"We've never had a policy of banning the hanbok... what happened on Tuesday was a mistake in our staff communications," a spokesman told AFP.

He said Lee Boo-Jin, the hotel CEO and a daughter of Samsung chairman Lee Kun-Hee, visited the designer -- who once made hanbok for Samsung's founding family -- to apologise personally.