Internet Post Office Out of Service
Postal Savings and Insurance Services Suspended
On the morning of the 21st, ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, parcels are piled up at the Dong Seoul Postal Logistics Center in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News
Overnight, a fire at the National Information Resources Service disrupted postal services, including the Internet Post Office, raising concerns about a possible postal crisis ahead of the Chuseok holiday.
The Korea Post under the Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 27th, "We are making every effort to resume services as quickly as possible by mobilizing all available resources." Currently, due to the aftermath of the fire, the Internet Post Office is paralyzed, and financial services such as postal savings and insurance are also unavailable.
With the long Chuseok holiday starting on October 3, concerns are growing over a possible paralysis of postal services as parcel volumes surge.
For postal services, parcels scheduled for delivery today are being delivered by switching the delivery system to an offline mode, and service operations are expected to resume depending on the system recovery schedule.
According to Korea Post, the delivery system can operate even if the delivery-only terminal (PDA) is not connected to the internet. However, since today is Saturday and post office counters are closed, parcel deliveries are relying on information pre-entered into the system. If the system is not restored by next week, all mail acceptance and delivery processing will switch entirely to offline operations, which is expected to increase processing times.
The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on the 26th that it held an emergency situation assessment meeting chaired by Minister Yoon Hojung to respond to the government computer service disruption caused by the fire at the National Information Resources Service. The crisis alert was issued at the 'Caution' level. Yonhap News
In particular, during the special Chuseok mail handling period, which runs through October 14, the volume of mail handled by post offices nationwide is expected to reach about 1.6 million items per day, a 4.8% increase from last year, raising concerns about a logistics crisis.
For postal financial services, all services-including deposits and withdrawals, transfers, ATM use, and insurance premium payments and claims-have been suspended.
Kwak Byungjin, acting head of Korea Post, said, "We apologize for the inconvenience caused to citizens using the post office and will do our utmost to restore services to normal."
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