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164 out of 647 systems back online after last month's data center fire

Published: 08 Oct. 2025, 13:39 Updated: 09 Oct. 2025, 13:34

Officials work to restore the damaged system at the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) headquarters in Daejeon on Oct. 4, 12 days after a fire took down major servers on Sept. 26. [JOONGANG ILBO]

Despite round-the-clock efforts over the Chuseok holidays to restore government IT systems damaged in last month's fire at the National Information Resources Service (NIRS), only about a quarter of the affected services are back online.

As of 6 a.m. on Wednesday, 164 out of 647 systems had been restored, according to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. That marks an increase of five systems from Tuesday afternoon, after partial recovery of servers operated by the National Data Agency.

Restored services include the parcel delivery system of the Ministry of Science and ICT's Korea Post, the internal email system of the Korea Communications Commission, the Government for Business platform of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Harmoni system of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. On Wednesday morning, the internal work portal “Naru” of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism was also restored.

Since a fire broke out in the main server room of NIRS's Daejeon center on Sept. 26, the government has been working for 12 days straight on damage control and recovery. Even during the Chuseok holidays, it deployed government officials, private-sector experts and researchers to bring damaged systems back online. Starting the day before the Chuseok break, which began on Oct. 3, the government mobilized around 800 people — including 220 civil servants, 570 on-site employees from partner firms and 30 technical support and cleaning personnel.

The government has designated the extended holiday — covering National Foundation Day, Chuseok, Hangul Day and the weekend — as a “golden time” for restoration. With public service use lower during holidays, officials say it is crucial to restore as many systems as possible before normal operations resume to minimize disruptions for users when they return to work on Friday.

On the first day of the break last Friday, 13 systems were restored. Between then and Tuesday, 48 additional government online services shut down by the fire were brought back online. With five more systems restored on Wednesday, the total recovery rate reached 25.34 percent.

In particular, the government successfully restored 22 of 36 Grade 1 systems — those with the highest impact and usage — reaching a recovery rate of 61.1 percent for that category. Government systems are classified into four grades based on user volume and public impact.

For the 96 systems directly damaged by the fire, the target date for restoring service is Oct. 28, with preparations underway to transfer operations to the agency’s Daegu center. Vice Interior Minister Kim Min-jae, who is also the head of the field operations office, will visit the Daegu center at 2 p.m. on Wednesday to check the progress of the transfer. He will inspect preparations for a public-private partnership cloud system that will help rebuild the services.

The National Information Resources Service (NIRS) headquarters in Daejeon on Oct. 4 [JOONGANG ILBO]

Kim will also examine the condition of the Daegu center’s uninterruptible power supply and batteries. “We will work closely with private cloud providers to ensure a full recovery and minimize inconvenience to the public as quickly as possible,” he said.

Interior Minister Yun Ho-jung is scheduled to visit the Daejeon center on Wednesday to assess recovery efforts. “We are treating this seven-day holiday as a golden time to speed up restoration efforts with a sense of urgency,” Yun said. “We will also develop measures to improve the fundamental safety and resilience of government services and major IT infrastructure.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY MOON HEE-CHUL [[email protected]]