No. of damaged NIRS systems higher than first reported; gov't faces increased criticism

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No. of damaged NIRS systems higher than first reported; gov't faces increased criticism

Published: 09 Oct. 2025, 17:29 Updated: 09 Oct. 2025, 19:20

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Kim Min-jae, first deputy director of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters and vice minister of the interior and safety, speaks during a press briefing at the government complex in Sejong on Oct. 9. [YONHAP]

The number of government systems damaged due to last month's fire is not 647 but actually 709, the latest findings revealed Thursday, leading to mounting criticism of the government's handling of the case.

The revised figure was confirmed after the restoration of ntops, the internal system used to manage servers within the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) Daejeon data center. The late correction — made nearly two weeks after the fire — has prompted criticism that the government has failed to properly assess the basic scope of the disruption.

“With the recovery of the internal management system ntops, we were able to confirm that the total number of disrupted systems stands at 709,” Yun Ho-jung, head of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters and Minister of the Interior and Safety, said in opening remarks at a meeting on Thursday. “We will revise and disclose the full list of systems.”

The increase in system count is due to a more granular categorization of certain platforms, such as the Korea Post finance system and the unified email service for public officials, according to the headquarters. Based on criticality, the systems are now categorized into 40 first-grade systems, 68 second-grade, 261 third-grade and 340 fourth-grade.

When the fire broke out at the Daejeon center on Sept. 26, authorities initially announced that 647 systems had been shut down. It took two weeks to correct the total number of affected systems.

“It’s a failure to perform even the most basic assessment of the situation during a disaster,” said Lee Sang-dae, a researcher at a disaster research center.

Workers move equipment as part of efforts to restore the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) headquarters after a fire in Daejeon on Oct. 4. [KIM SUNG-TAE]

“The original list of 647 systems was based on records from NIRS’s monitoring platform and staff recollections,” said Kim Min-jae, first deputy director of the disaster headquarters and vice minister of the interior and safety, during a briefing on Thursday. “We apologize for the confusion caused.”

When asked whether the numbers might change again, Kim replied, “No.”

The government considered the recent Chuseok holiday period — during which face-to-face public services are halted — a golden time for recovery efforts. As of 6 a.m. Thursday, 193 out of the 709 affected systems had been restored, putting the recovery rate at 27.2 percent.

A police car is seen parked outside the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) headquarters in Daejeon on Oct. 4. [KIM SUNG-TAE]

Among the systems restored over the holiday were 54 key services, including Onnara, the main government document management system, and the 1365 donation portal. The restoration of Onnara allowed public servants to resume digital paperwork, ending the temporary reliance on handwritten documents.

The eighth data center room on the fifth floor of the NIRS headquarters, where the fire occurred, has completed dust removal and will be ready for system rebooting starting Saturday.

Authorities had initially considered relocating systems from the affected rooms 7 and 7-1 to the NIRS center in Daegu. However, they now plan to continue recovery efforts at the original site in Daejeon, provided that using older equipment and infrastructure still available at the location proves faster.

“Recovery timelines vary by system, but we believe it will be quicker to restore services in Daejeon than to transfer them to Daegu,” said NIRS President Lee Jae-yong.

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 KIM MIN-WOOK, MOON HEE-CHUL [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]