"It is very unfortunate that Samsung had to request that a high-ranking executive be investigated by the nation's legal authorities, but this was inevitable, as we concluded that we had to get to the bottom of this incident," Samsung said. LG denied Samsung's claim and said the executives inadvertently damaged the doors of two washing machines in one store because the model in question had weak hinges. An LG spokeswoman told Reuters that Jo Seong-jin, head of the company's home appliances division, was one of the people named in Samsung's investigation request. Officials in the prosecutors' office could not be reached on Sunday. The dispute is the latest between the two South Korean arch-rivals, which compete across a wide range of products including smartphones, televisions and home appliances. Previous disputes included a conflict over refrigerator capacity and claims over South Korean air conditioner market share. LG says that it is the world's largest maker of washing machines, followed by Samsung.