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Restoration after data center fire to take at least 4 weeks

Published: 29 Sep. 2025, 19:36

Kim Min-jae, first deputy chief of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters and vice minister of the interior and safety, gives a briefing on the fire at the National Information Resources Service’s administrative information systems at the Government Complex Sejong on Sept. 29. [YONHAP]

It will take at least four weeks to rebuild 96 administrative information systems that were destroyed in last week’s fire at the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) headquarters in Daejeon, the government said on Monday.

The systems include platforms considered least susceptible to errors such as the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs’ website, the e-People national civil petition portal and the National Law Information Center, as well as second-tier systems like OnNara System, the administrative work network used by public officials. With many of the government’s core digital services offline, disruptions are expected to continue.

Kim Min-jae, first deputy chief of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters and vice minister of the interior and safety, said in a briefing at the government complex in Sejong on Monday that it will take about two weeks to prepare information resources and another two weeks to rebuild systems at the NIRS backup data center in Daegu.

“Our goal is to shorten the timeline as much as possible with the cooperation of tenant companies at the Daegu center,” he said.

As of 4 p.m. Monday, 73 of the 647 disrupted systems had been restored, including Government24, Korea Post’s online portal, the government procurement system Nara Market and the welfare portal Bokjiro.

Kim said the government was restarting systems in data rooms least affected by the fire, while the fifth-floor server room — where the fire broke out — will be reactivated only after dust removal.

"Because servers are vulnerable to static electricity and water, specialized contractors are handling the work, which is expected to take one to two weeks," he added.

Kim acknowledged that the list of the 96 destroyed systems was released later than expected, due to "organizing difficulties following the fire damage."

A notice is posted on an automated teller machine at a post office in Seoul on Sept. 28, informing customers of service disruptions caused by a fire at the National Information Resources Service’s data center in Daejeon on Sept. 26. [YONHAP]

In the meantime, the government is providing alternatives: e-People petitions and veterans affairs applications are being processed offline by mail or in person, while the Korean Law Information Center has redirected users to the National Assembly’s legislative information site.

Updates on system restorations will be announced through local portal sites such as Naver and Daum as well as through press releases. The government is also operating joint call centers, the 110 national helpline and 120 regional helpline, and directing local governments to run dedicated support teams for civil petitions.

The fire has raised questions about safety management at the NIRS. One issue is that unqualified workers may have been involved in battery relocation work when the accident occurred. Kim said, "At the time of the fire, eight people were working on site — employees from contractor Ilseong Gyejeon and two partner companies."

Concerns have also been raised about the batteries themselves. One of the lithium-ion batteries destroyed in the fire had already exceeded its recommended 10-year service life.

"Other batteries had not yet reached their recommended lifespan, and we judged they could be used for another one or two years," NIRS President Lee Jae-yong said. "But this incident has taught us the lesson that we must adhere to replacement cycles regardless of apparent condition."

Police officers inspect lithium-ion batteries used for uninterruptible power supply at the site of a fire at the National Information Resources Service in Yuseong District, Daejeon, on Sept. 29. The blaze, which broke out on Sept. 26, crippled a wide range of government digital services. [YONHAP]

Critics say the incident occurred because the government failed to set up adequate backup cloud systems for data storage, drawing comparisons to the Kakao service outage in October 2022.

"The technology required sufficient verification through research projects, and because it demanded enormous funding, we were constrained to first create a pilot model before making full-scale investments," said Lee Yong-seok, head of the Interior Ministry’s digital government innovation office.

Interior Minister Yun Ho-jung issued a public apology: "I sincerely apologize for the great inconvenience caused to the public. We will mobilize all available resources to accelerate recovery efforts and minimize disruption."

Police, meanwhile, are accelerating their investigation into the cause of the fire. Investigators have seized six lithium-ion batteries suspected of triggering the explosion. After stabilization, the batteries will be sent to the National Forensic Service for detailed analysis.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY SHIN JIN-HO,HAN EUN-HWA [[email protected]]