"'National Data Center Shutdown' Controversy Spreads... 'No Funds to Operate Newly Introduced Unit 6'"

Rep. Cho Seung-rae of the Democratic Party exposes on the afternoon of the 24th
All 8 billion KRW of the operating budget for the newly introduced Unit 6 next year has been cut
"The disastrous R&D budget cut is a prelude to a national catastrophe"

It was revealed on the 24th that the government has completely cut the operating budget for the national supercomputer scheduled to be introduced next year. Earlier that day, a report by Asia Economy confirmed that some of the national supercomputer facilities recently stopped operating due to a lack of funds to pay electricity bills. A comprehensive emergency signal has been triggered for the operation of the national supercomputer, a strategic information asset of the government. The opposition party criticized, saying, "The disastrous cut in research and development (R&D) budgets is a prelude to catastrophe."

Cho Seung-rae, the spokesperson for the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Communications Committee and a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, issued a statement in the afternoon criticizing the partial shutdown of national supercomputing due to insufficient electricity fees reported by Asia Economy that day. Cho said, "An unprecedented situation has occurred where the national supercomputer has stopped because of electricity bills," adding, "It is hard to believe that this is South Korea in 2023. A sense of self-disgust that 'we woke up to find ourselves a developing country' is overwhelming the nation."

Cho also revealed new facts. He claimed, "Although it was not reported in the media, a bigger problem is looming," and stated, "The government slashed next year's R&D budget and completely cut the operating budget of about 8 billion KRW for the 6th supercomputer to be newly introduced next year." The government is currently promoting the construction project of the 6th national supercomputer. It passed the preliminary feasibility study in August last year. With a total project cost of 292.9 billion KRW, a new supercomputer with a performance of 600 petaflops (PF) will be built. This is about 23 times the performance of the currently operating 5th national supercomputer 'Nurion' (approximately 25.7 PF). However, it is reported that the government completely cut the operating budget for the 6th supercomputer when announcing the major R&D budget for next year on the 22nd.

Regarding this, Cho said, "This is an outrage that renders a national core infrastructure, built with hundreds of billions of won, useless. This is the essence of the next year's R&D budget cut chaos, disguised with words like 'innovation' and 'structural reform'." He also criticized, "This is just the tip of the iceberg in the R&D budget cuts, which slashed a whopping 3.4 trillion KRW. The Yoon Seok-yeol administration butchered the nation's future R&D budget, ignoring laws and procedures at the president's word."

Earlier, on the 22nd, the government cut the major R&D budget under the Ministry of Science and ICT for next year from the existing 24.9 trillion KRW to 21.5 trillion KRW, a reduction of about 3.4 trillion KRW (13.9%). The basic research budget was reduced by 6.2%, and the budget for government-funded research institutes was cut by 10.8% respectively.

Meanwhile, the National Supercomputing Center at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) announced on the 24th that it has suspended the operation of 50% of the cluster equipment at the Large-scale Data Hub Center (GSDC) for 10 days from the 21st to the 30th. Lee Sik, head of the National Supercomputing Center, explained that due to the increase in electricity rates and usage, it is difficult to cover the electricity costs (expected about 700 million KRW) with the existing budget (about 400 million KRW), so operations are being reduced, and this could last up to six weeks.