National Data Center Fire Paralyzes Post Office Systems... Concerns of Chaos Ahead of Chuseok

All services, including postal, banking, and insurance, disrupted due to fire at the National Data Center.

Public inconvenience expected if IT system paralysis continues... "Efforts to normalize services quickly."

Postal services, including the online post office, and financial services such as postal savings and insurance are currently unavailable due to a fire at the National Data Center.

The Korea Post, under the Ministry of Science and ICT, announced on the 27th that they are striving to resume services as soon as possible by utilizing all available resources.

With the Chuseok holiday, a peak season for parcel deliveries, just around the corner, the paralysis of post office services raises concerns about potential postal chaos.

For postal services, parcels scheduled for delivery today are being dispatched using an offline delivery system. Preparations are underway to quickly resume services based on the system recovery schedule.

A Korea Post official explained that the delivery system can operate even when delivery terminals (PDAs) are not connected to the internet.

However, as Saturday is a day when post office counters are closed, parcel deliveries are currently utilizing pre-entered system information. If the system is not restored by next week, all mail reception and delivery processes will be conducted offline, leading to increased delivery times.

Especially with the Chuseok holiday special postal period, which lasts until the 14th of next month, an average of approximately 1.6 million pieces of mail per day are expected to be handled through post offices nationwide, a 4.8% increase from last year. This could lead to a logistics crisis if the situation prolongs.

Screenshot of inaccessible online post office [Captured from online post office. Reproduction and redistribution prohibited]

For postal financial services, all services, including deposits, withdrawals, transfers, ATM usage, and insurance premium payments/disbursements, have been suspended.

Korea Post stated that the suspension of deposit, withdrawal, and transfer services will not affect the maintenance of postal savings and insurance contracts. They plan to take measures to prevent any damages due to delays in insurance premium payments or loan repayments of surrender values.

A fire broke out around 8:20 PM yesterday in the server room of the National Data Center in Daejeon, which houses and manages large-scale government IT systems, servers, and databases, due to a lithium-ion battery explosion, causing a paralysis of government IT systems.

The main flames were contained around 6:30 AM today, with the fire being put out after approximately 10 hours. However, no estimated recovery timeline for the government IT systems has been provided to Korea Post yet.

Kwak Byung-jin, acting head of Korea Post, apologized for the inconvenience caused to the public and pledged to do his best to normalize services. Yonhap News

Ministry of the Interior and Safety, Emergency Situation Assessment Meeting on National Data Center Fire (Seoul=Yonhap News) The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced that it held an emergency situation assessment meeting chaired by Minister Yoon Ho-jung on the 26th to respond to the government IT service disruption caused by the fire at the National Data Center and issued a 'Caution' alert. 2025.9.27 [Provided by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. Reproduction and redistribution prohibited] photo@yna.co.kr