Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon says

Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon called for measures to better protect key infrastructure on Nov. 27, 2018 in the wake of last week's two accidents that caused major disruptions to telecom networks and railway services.

At a Cabinet meeting, Lee addressed a fire at a KT Corp. building and a power failure at a high-speed train station, saying the fiascoes laid bare the vulnerability of this hyper-connected society.

Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon presides over a Cabinet meeting in Seoul on Nov. 27, 2018.

"The accidents showed how unbalanced our technological advances have been achieved," Lee said.

He ordered officials to take actions to promptly recover from the accidents' aftermath and determine their causes. He also raised the need to punish those who are responsible for them and draw up measures to prevent recurrences.

"Government officials should review emergency guidelines regarding the management of social infrastructure like trains, communications, electricity and gas, as well as check related facilities," he stressed.

On Nov. 24, 2018, a fire broke out in the basement of the building of the country's top fixed-line operator in western Seoul, burning about 150 meters of fiber-optic cables installed underground.

The accident paralyzed its fixed-line, mobile and Internet networks in Seoul's several western districts and some parts of Gyeonggi Province for most of the weekend.

Also on Nov. 20, 2018, an abrupt suspension of electricity caused a KTX train to halt near a station in the country's central province, disrupting the operation of some 120 KTX and other trains for hours. (Yonhap)

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