SEOUL – The South Korean government is actively working to repair a significant system failure that disrupted public access to government-approved documents. The breakdown, which occurred two days ago, has affected the administrative network across the country.
According to Yonhap News Agency, over 100 government personnel and private technicians have been mobilized at the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) in Daejeon, located 139 kilometers south of Seoul, to rectify the issue. The team has replaced network equipment believed to have caused the system failure and conducted tests at local community centers to ensure the proper issuance of documents. Though no issues were detected in these tests, officials are cautious about the potential surge in network traffic post-weekend and are striving to fully normalize the system by Monday.
The Saeol administrative network, crucial for public workers to access essential documents like birth certificates and resident registration papers, has been down since Friday. The malfunction, reportedly due to an error in the authentication process, paralyzed both offline and online document services, including the suspension of the Government 24 online portal. This has led to widespread delays and disruptions in public access nationwide.
While the Government 24 portal was temporarily restored on Saturday and is currently accessible through web and mobile platforms, IT experts at NIRS are still investigating the root cause of the system failure. A recent system upgrade is suspected to be a contributing factor to the breakdown.