Network error grinds government network to halt, restoration still in progress

A notice is posted at the entrance of a local government office in Seoul on Friday morning, when the administrative computer network of local governments across the country was disrupted. (Yonhap)

Local governments across the country have suspended issuing government certificates and civil documents due to a failure in the administrative computer network, followed by a series of suspensions of the Government 24 online service, causing massive inconveniences.

The Interior Ministry said it was working to restore the system.

An indefinite suspension of all services was announced on the Government website at 1:55 p.m., with the explanation that the system was malfunctioning. The Government 24 application is the pangovernmental online application that provides services including issuance of online certificates and documents.

"Saeol," a computer network used by local governments across the country, has been malfunctioning since 9 a.m. Friday.

“The officials are still restoring the system as of 2:30 p.m. It is believed to be an error in the user authentication system that government officials use to access the Saeol network," said a public relations officer at the Interior Ministry.

The error has blocked both offline and online administrative services and delayed the handling of civil complaints at the Administrative Welfare Centers throughout the country.

The National Information Resources Service partially recovered the errors at 12:20 p.m., reportedly, but most of the system was not functioning properly as of 3 p.m., and the exact cause is yet to be confirmed.

The Interior Ministry said it would not be easy to restore the civil petition document service by the end of Friday.

By Lee Jung-youn(jy@heraldcorp.com)