Seoul, South Korea – The mobile identification card application operated by the South Korean government was fully restored on Friday evening after a breakdown that lasted over six hours. The disruption, which began at 1:54 p.m., affected both the mobile ID card website and its app, causing significant inconvenience.
According to Yonhap News Agency, which manages the system, the breakdown was caused by an accidental trigger by an employee, leading to a temporary halt in operations. There was no indication of any external cyber attack. While the website was quickly brought back online, the app remained partially down until 8:40 p.m.
This incident followed a major system failure in the government’s administrative network on November 17, which disrupted public access to state-approved documents for two days. South Korea has been offering the mobile identification service since July last year and is planning to introduce mobile national ID cards with the same legal status as traditional plastic ID cards in the second half of the next year.