S. Korean leader calls for improved security after fire at national data centre

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has pledged a “significant improvement” in the security of government administrative systems after a major fire at the national data centre crippled online services around the country.

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A fire at the country's National Information Resources Service (Nirs) late on Sept 26 caused widespread disruptions in public services, with airports and the post office among the most significantly affected on Sept 27.

The blaze started while workers were transferring batteries as part of a fire prevention project, according to local media reports on Sept 28.

Workers at Nirs in Daejeon were removing lithium-ion batteries from a server room. The move was prompted by a 2022 fire at SK C&C's data centre in Seongnam which disrupted major services including Kakao, Daum and Naver.

The earlier fire was caused by lithium-ion batteries in the uninterruptible power supply.

The government agency judged it risky to keep the national computer systems and batteries in the same place. After securing a budget, it began relocating batteries to the basement.

The 384 battery packs were divided into six groups, with the fire starting during the relocation of the second group.

The blaze broke out at around 8.20pm in a server room on the fifth floor when an uninterruptible power supply battery suddenly sparked. It happened about 40 minutes after the staff had cut power to shift the batteries.

Fire officials said the server room’s layout, with only 60cm between the high-risk batteries and major servers, and 1.2m between servers, made extinguishing the blaze especially difficult.