Seoul, Sep 28: South Korea’s Interior Ministry said Sunday that it has begun gradually resuming operations of the government’s administrative computer network after a fire caused by a lithium-ion battery explosion crippled the system. A full restoration, however, is expected to take about two weeks.
The fire broke out Friday at the National Information Resources Service in Daejeon after an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) battery exploded inside a computer room on the fifth floor. The blaze, which took around 22 hours to fully extinguish, damaged key systems and disrupted critical online services.
As of Sunday morning, over 50 percent of the centre’s network devices had been restored, and 99 percent of the 767 security-related devices were functioning again, the ministry said. It has also begun restarting 551 unaffected systems to test service stability.
Among the 647 government systems housed at the centre, 96 were presumed damaged, including the mobile identification platform and the online postal service. The government intranet, known as the Onnara System, remains only partially operational, limiting public sector functions. Officials said the damaged systems will be relocated to the agency’s branch in Daegu, a process expected to take two weeks.
The Finance Ministry confirmed that critical platforms, such as the state financial information network and the government subsidies portal, have already resumed operations. The Science Ministry said Korea Post’s financial services, including online banking, debit card transactions, and ATMs, were restored by Sunday night, while mailing services are expected to restart early Monday.
Disaster Safety Management chief Kim Kwang-yong said the government would disclose both recovery progress and the cause of the fire transparently. Fire and police officials are conducting on-site inspections, with preliminary findings pointing to a UPS battery explosion during relocation work.
