A fire at South Korea’s National Information Resources Service (NIRS) in Daejeon has forced the suspension of more than 600 government-operated digital services, including postal and tax platforms, the country’s prime minister confirmed.
The incident began on Friday evening, with local officials stating the blaze may have been triggered by an explosion in a battery unit at the data centre, which is located about 85 miles (130 km) south of Seoul.
The fire broke out at approximately 8:20 p.m. local time and was linked to what investigators described as a “thermal runaway”, generating extreme heat inside a server room and hindering containment efforts.
By Saturday morning, the disruption had spread across a wide range of government systems, including email, official websites, online postal services and a mobile identification platform used by citizens for authentication.
The government’s digital petition and complaints system was also offline, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
Prime Minister Kim Min-seok said the incident had “paralysed” the state’s internal digital infrastructure. “There were difficulties in containing the fire because of the nature of critical government systems being concentrated at one site,” Kim said in a televised emergency meeting.
He added that passengers travelling through airports who rely solely on mobile identification could face additional inconvenience.
Kim apologised to the public for the interruption and said efforts were under way to restore functionality as quickly as possible.
Emergency services dispatched around 170 firefighters and 63 fire trucks to the site, with the main blaze brought under control by 6:30 a.m. on Saturday.
Reports from Yonhap news agency indicated that one worker sustained first-degree burns to the face and arm while handling batteries at the facility.
Nearly 200 lithium-ion battery packs are believed to have been destroyed during the incident.
Lee Jae-yong, head of the NIRS data centre, told Reuters that there was no estimate for when the suspended systems would be back online.
The NIRS acts as a cloud server hub for a wide range of government databases and services. The centralisation of critical systems in a single location has drawn scrutiny in the aftermath of the fire.
The incident exposed the risks associated with concentration of infrastructure in a heavily digitalised economy such as South Korea’s.
The fire has also raised questions about energy storage safety in large-scale facilities. Lithium-ion batteries, which are commonly used for backup power at data centres, have been associated with thermal runaway risks that can result in fires that are difficult to extinguish.
While authorities continue to investigate the precise cause of the incident, the government has pledged a review of its digital infrastructure and emergency response measures.
“The government will work swiftly to restore services,” Kim said.
South Korea, one of the most digitally connected economies in Asia, relies extensively on online systems for both public administration and private sector transactions.
No timeline has yet been provided for the restoration of disrupted services, leaving uncertainty for citizens and businesses that depend on the government’s digital infrastructure for daily operations.
