South Korean govt vows to accelerate restoration of online govt services during Chuseok holiday

Seoul, Oct 3 (IANS) The South Korean government said Friday it will speed up the restoration of online government services affected by last week's fire at the state data management agency during the extended Chuseok holiday.

South Korea's Interior Minister Yun Ho-jung made the remark during a government meeting, as the restoration rate for the 647 services stood at 17.8 per cent, a week after the fire at the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) in Daejeon, about 140 kilometers south of Seoul, caused a massive systems outage, Yonhap News Agency reported.

"The government will accelerate the restoration with exceptional determination, while treating the seven-day holiday as golden time for recovery," he said during the meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters. "The government will respond thoroughly to ensure no gaps in administrative services and safety management during the holiday."

The seven-day break, which covers Chuseok, National Foundation Day and Hangeul Day, began Friday and runs through next Thursday.

Yun said the government is in talks with the presidential office and the financial authorities to secure reserve funds for the NIRS' restoration and relocation of damaged systems to an NIRS branch in the southeastern city of Daegu.

"Normalising computer network failures is expected to take time," he said. "We plan to select key systems directly related to people's everyday lives and come up with separate management systems for them."

On Thursday, the government said that a total of 112 online government services have been restored in the wake of an outage caused by last week's fire at the state data management agency.

As of 12 pm, the restoration rate stood at 17.3 percent after 112 of the 647 services affected by Friday's fire at the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) in Daejeon, about 140 kilometers south of Seoul, were brought back online, it said.

--IANS

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