The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, regarding the fire at the National Information Resources Service (NIRS), said, "We are currently mobilizing more than 700 government employees and private-sector personnel to restore the system," adding, "Some parts were damaged, and as we procure new ones and carry out restoration work, it is taking time."
On the 30th, at a related briefing held at the Government Complex Sejong, Lee Yong-seok, director general for digital government innovation at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, said, "We have currently deployed 130 government employees and 574 personnel from operations and maintenance projects for restoration."
In response to criticism that the recovery is slow despite the large number of personnel being deployed, National Information Resources Service Director Lee Jae-yong explained that it is because they are not in a situation where they can power everything on at once. Lee said, "Normally, when shutting down a system, there are procedures and an order, but at the time of the fire, power had to be cut quickly, so we could not follow the order," adding, "Also, because smoke and heat were applied, parts were damaged."
Lee continued, "In such cases, you have to procure new parts and reboot," adding, "Recovery is taking time." As of 10 a.m. on the fifth day since the NIRS fire, only 13.4% of the government administrative information systems that had been shut down have been restored.
The government is sequentially restoring 551 systems, excluding 96 systems involved with the completely burned "7-1 data center." The 96 systems are expected to inevitably suffer long-term disruptions for about a month. The 7-1 data center is located on the fifth floor of the NIRS building, where 51% of all systems are located.
Meanwhile, regarding the public inconvenience, Vice Minister Kim Min-jae of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said, "As Government24 and unmanned civil document-issuing kiosks returned to normal, there was no major disruption in handling various civil affairs today," adding, "As some functions of the real estate transaction or the Social Security Information System experienced outages and online services were suspended, inconveniences remain, such as visiting community service centers and processing documents by hand."
Asked whether there is a plan to provide relief for citizens who suffered financial losses from this incident, Deputy Minister Lee Yong-seok said, "We will take measures to ensure there is no loss to the greatest extent possible," adding, "Specific relief measures will likely need to be discussed after reviewing the cases we receive." The government is operating the 110 and 120 call centers to receive reports of inconveniences caused by this incident. It has also taken measures such as waiving fees for issuing resident registration transcripts and copies and seal certificates, and extending tax payment deadlines.