Korean government vows to restore network after data centre fire

September 27, 2025 / 9:12 PM

Sharjah24 - WAM: The Korean government pledged on Saturday to fully restore its administrative computer network after a fire, triggered by a battery explosion, disrupted operations at the central state data centre in Daejeon, according to Yonhap.

Emergency response and recovery plan

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety convened the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (CDSCH) and announced plans to repair damaged network equipment by Sunday to normalise vital services linked to citizens’ daily lives and the economy.

Interior Minister Yun Ho-jung apologised to the public for delays in civil applications and certificate issuance caused by the outage.

Scope of the disruption

When the fire broke out, authorities shut down 647 online systems, including the mobile ID system and online postal service. Of these, 436 were public programmes, while 211 served as intranet systems for officials. Ninety-six systems were directly damaged by the fire.

Cause of the fire

The blaze began at 8:15 p.m. Friday when a lithium-ion battery in an uninterruptible power supply exploded while being disconnected from servers for relocation. The flames were extinguished after nearly 22 hours on Saturday at 6 p.m., officials confirmed.