Inferno at South Korea's Data Hub: National Services Disrupted

A devastating fire broke out at South Korea's national data centre, severely disrupting numerous government online services and internal networks. The blaze, suspected to have been caused by an explosion of an LG Energy Solution lithium-ion battery during maintenance, necessitated an urgent response to restore the affected systems.

Fire officials reported that the fire led to a 'thermal runaway', generating extreme heat that hindered containment efforts at the National Information Resources Services in Daejeon. This centre, acting as a cloud server for various government services, had to shut down hundreds of servers to prevent further damage. The fire was controlled early Saturday, but at great cost to operational continuity.

In the aftermath, many government portals, including mobile ID systems and legal databases, remained offline. Prime Minister Kim Min-seok extended an apology for the public inconvenience, asserting that tax payment deadlines would be postponed. Government officials continue to investigate the cause, while safety measures have been enforced with nearly 400 battery packs extracted as a precaution.

(With inputs from agencies.)