Concerns Over Korea Post Logistics Disruptions
Mobile Identification Services Also Suspended
Gwangju City Hall Provides Alternative Service Counters
Public Services in South and North Jeolla Also Paralyzed
"A customer tried to pay with a Korea Post card during lunch, but an error message appeared. Since the customer is a regular, they said they would come back in the evening."
On the 17th, a network outage is being displayed on the unmanned civil service issuance machine in the civil service office at the National Assembly Members' Office Building in Seoul due to a failure in the nationwide local government administrative computer network. Photo by Kim Hyunmin
On September 27, the owner of a restaurant in Seo-gu, Gwangju, described the payment disruption caused by the fire at the National Information Resources Service Daejeon Center. With the government computer network down, residents across Gwangju, South Jeolla, and North Jeolla are experiencing real inconveniences.
The Korea Post announced that all services through the online Korea Post have been completely suspended. There have been disruptions across all postal, savings, and insurance services. With the logistics system also affected just before Chuseok, there are growing concerns about a 'holiday crisis.' In fact, notices about the 'Korea Post financial service outage' have been posted at post office counters in Gwangju, turning away many citizens.
The malfunction of mobile identification cards has also caused inconvenience for weekend travelers. Online, people have posted comments such as, "I almost missed my flight," and "I had trouble picking up my ticket at the venue because I didn't have a physical ID."
The Gwangju City Government announced that major electronic civil service platforms such as Government24 online certificate issuance, mobile identification cards, and the National Petition Portal are not functioning properly. While services based on its own servers are still operating, the city urgently posted a banner on its website to guide citizens to alternative counters for certificate issuance in order to reduce inconvenience.
The South Jeolla Provincial Government notified its employees of the national administrative information system outage. With digital certificates not functioning, access to the administrative portal is only possible using ID and password, and both email and PC video conferencing have been suspended.
The North Jeolla Provincial Government posted a banner on its website stating, "Some Jeonbuk system services are suspended due to a fire at the National Information Resources Service data center." Confirmation texts sent to applicants for passport appointments and provincial government tours, as well as directions to the government office, have been suspended. This is because the text messaging server is located at the National Information Resources Service and is now inoperable. Civil servants are also unable to use the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's document distribution system, so documents are being sent via electronic fax, and files are being exchanged through an in-house server-based messenger instead of the Onnara system.
According to fire authorities, the fire was caused by a lithium-ion battery explosion in the data center, which destroyed servers and equipment and completely burned down one of the two data rooms. As a result, more than 600 major systems, including Government24 and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's website, have been suspended.
The fire, which broke out at 8:20 p.m. the previous day in the data center of the National Information Resources Service in Daejeon, was brought under control after about 10 hours, at 6:30 a.m. on September 27. However, as of now, no estimated timeline for the restoration of the government computer system has been provided to Korea Post, so residents are expected to continue experiencing inconvenience for the time being.
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