South Korea is facing widespread digital disruption after a massive fire broke out at the country’s National Data Centre, disabling several government online services and internal networks.
Authorities are now racing to restore systems while investigating the lithium battery explosion that sparked the blaze.
Officials said the fire is suspected to have started when a lithium battery, manufactured by South Korea’s LG Energy Solution, exploded during maintenance on Friday evening. The incident damaged multiple servers and forced the shutdown of hundreds more.
Fire and government officials explained that the blaze triggered a severe thermal runaway, causing extreme heat in the server room at the National Information Resources Service facility in Daejeon.
The intensity of the heat initially prevented firefighters from fully containing the flames. The fire began at around 8:20 p.m. local time (11:20 GMT) and was brought under control by early Saturday. However, more than 600 servers remain offline as a precaution while firefighters remove nearly 400 battery packs from the site.
The exact cause of the battery explosion remains under investigation. According to local reports, several ministries are still unable to access email services, highlighting the scale of the disruption.
Prime Minister Kim Min-seok issued a public apology on Saturday for the inconvenience caused by the outage and pledged swift action to restore services. He also confirmed that upcoming tax payment deadlines would be postponed to ease the impact on citizens.
Speaking at an emergency televised meeting, Kim acknowledged that firefighting efforts were hampered by the concentration of critical government systems in a single location.
One person was treated for minor injuries, while fire officials reported extensive damage to the building’s fifth floor, where the fire was most intense.
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