Daejeon: A total of 81 online public services, including a major government portal and the banking arm of the national postal service, were restored Monday after being disrupted by a fire at the state data management agency. As of 10 p.m., 12.5 percent of the 647 public administration systems that were suspended following Friday's fire at the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) in Daejeon, approximately 140 kilometers south of Seoul, were back online.
According to Yonhap News Agency, restored services included GOV.KR, a major government portal for civil application services, the interior ministry's mobile identification system, the Office for Government Policy Coordination's state management system, and the science ministry's internal portal for postal logistics. The government is prioritizing the restoration of services directly impacting people's safety and economic activities, although the slow normalization process is expected to delay many administrative procedures as local government offices resumed operations after the weekend.
Interior Minister Yun Ho-jung apologized for the inconvenience caused by the outage, bowing in apology during a meeting of the government's Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters in Sejong. The minister noted that it would be challenging to immediately restore services linked to 96 systems destroyed in the fire. However, efforts are underway to relocate these systems to a cloud at the NIRS branch in Daegu, with the restoration process expected to take around four weeks, as stated by Vice Interior Minister Kim Min-jae.
Among the affected systems are the national law information center, the National Counterterrorism Center website, and the online government briefing system. While applications for government-issued consumption coupons are possible, a government site for receiving civil complaints remains suspended, necessitating visits to local community service centers to file complaints. Additionally, a nationwide cremation booking site has been impacted, requiring individuals to contact crematoriums online or via phone.
President Lee Jae Myung extended apologies to the nation on Sunday, acknowledging the inconvenience and anxiety caused by the fire. He urged the government to expedite service restoration ahead of the Chuseok holiday, a period of high demand for postal, delivery, and financial services. The fire originated from a lithium-ion battery explosion in a server room on the fifth floor of the NIRS and was fully extinguished at 6 p.m. Saturday, 22 hours after it started.
Police have established an investigation team of about 20 members to ascertain the fire's cause, with three investigators specializing in lithium-ion batteries assigned to the task. NIRS clarified that while the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) batteries that caught fire were deemed "normal" in periodic tests last year and this year, their replacement had been recommended due to their age, exceeding a 10-year lifespan. The agency also addressed reports that the batteries caught fire during relocation to the basement for separation from servers.