Recovery rate at just 4.6% as major public services remain offline, chaos expected at civil service offices
A fire at the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) headquarters in Daejeon has left government IT systems paralyzed for the fourth consecutive day, with authorities warning of major disruptions as civil service offices reopen on September 29.
According to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, partial recovery efforts began at 11:25 a.m. on Sunday, with network and security equipment back online. Systems housed on the second to fourth floors are being gradually restored, while the fifth-floor data room where the fire broke out remains shut down. Essential facilities such as temperature and humidity control were restored earlier at 5:30 a.m.
The fire disrupted a total of 647 services. Of these, 96 systems suffered direct damage, while 551 were preemptively shut down to protect equipment. The government plans to sequentially restart the latter, but the 96 destroyed systems must be relocated to the NIRS Daegu Center’s cloud zone, a process expected to take at least two weeks. Key services such as the People’s Petition System, National Law Information Center, and the On-nara internal network for public officials are among those affected.
“Relocating the destroyed systems to the Daegu Center is more effective than reinstalling them at the damaged site,” a ministry official said. “It will take about two weeks to rebuild the resource pool and restore full operations.”
As of 10 p.m. Sunday, only 30 services had been restored—including the mobile ID system, health and medical big data platform, the Digital Budget and Accounting System (dBrain), Korea Post’s online financial services, and elderly care support systems—bringing the overall recovery rate to just 4.6%. Authorities said restoration efforts are being prioritized for systems related to public safety, property, and economic activities.
The slow recovery is already fueling public inconvenience. For instance, while applications for the second round of consumption coupons remain open, users cannot file online appeals due to the shutdown of the People’s Petition System, forcing them to visit local government offices in person. The nationwide cremation reservation service, “e-Haneul,” is also inaccessible, requiring direct applications to individual crematoriums. The Personal Information Protection Commission’s website remains offline, with reports of breaches being accepted only by email.
Other high-demand services such as Government24, unmanned civil document kiosks, and the Public Procurement Service’s “Nara Marketplace” remain unavailable.
Yoon Ho-joong, head of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters and Minister of the Interior and Safety, vowed transparency and minimal disruption: “We will do our utmost to keep the public informed and ensure business continuity while minimizing inconvenience.”