Ministry of Science and ICT: "95% Recovery of Pangyo IDC Fire Damage"

Minister Lee Jong-ho of the Ministry of Science and ICT visited the SK C&C Pangyo Data Center in Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do on the morning of the 16th to inspect the fire-related situation and encourage the prompt recovery of service disruptions at Naver, Kakao, and others. Photo by Ministry of Science and ICT

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Su-yeon] The Ministry of Science and ICT announced that it has restored approximately 95% of the damage caused by the fire at the Pangyo Data Center.

The Ministry of Science and ICT held the 3rd inspection meeting of the Broadcasting and Communications Disaster Countermeasures Headquarters on the 17th regarding the SK C&C Pangyo Data Center fire that occurred on the 15th. During the meeting, they checked the status of service disruptions and recovery for companies such as Kakao and encouraged and supported rapid restoration efforts.

The Broadcasting and Communications Disaster Countermeasures Headquarters visited the fire recovery site and inspected the service restoration status during the first inspection meeting chaired by Minister Lee Jong-ho at 10:30 a.m. the previous day. Later that day at 8 p.m., the second inspection meeting, chaired by Vice Minister Park Yoon-kyu, reviewed the measures taken to restore services as much as possible before Monday, when normal daily life resumes.

At the inspection meeting held at 9 a.m. that day, Minister Lee Jong-ho presided over a discussion with related ministries including the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the Korea Communications Commission, and affected service providers such as SK C&C, Kakao, and Naver to discuss major recovery progress and future improvement directions.

SK C&C’s Pangyo Data Center has been undergoing sequential restoration work since power supply resumed at 1:30 a.m. on the 16th. As of 6 a.m. on the 17th, restoration progress reached approximately 95%.

As of 6 a.m. that day, Kakao reported that 4 out of its 13 major services (KakaoPay, Kakao Games, Kakao Webtoon, Zigzag) had been fully restored, while the remaining 9 services were partially recovered. Notably, KakaoTalk’s image, video, and file transfer functions were restored despite some speed degradation, and services such as Kakao Subway, KakaoT Taxi Driver App, and KakaoT Proxy Driver App were also restored.

For Naver, 3 out of 4 major services (Portal, Shopping, Series On, Papago) were fully restored except for the portal search function. Although the portal search function does not significantly disrupt daily use, some features are still being restored, and full normalization is underway.

The Ministry of Science and ICT informed the public of the major service recovery status through disaster text messages around 9 a.m. that day.

Meanwhile, the Ministry plans to develop effective measures to ensure the stability of value-added communication services in collaboration with related experts, using this incident as an opportunity. They will review institutional, managerial, and technical measures such as establishing a system to monitor compliance with service stability obligations by value-added communication service providers and enhanced protective measures to improve data center survivability.