National Data Office marks first year with Seoul Station event

The National Data Office said Wednesday it will mark its first anniversary with an open citizen event at Seoul Station, offering interactive booths and a message wall to the public.

The event runs from 11 a.m. at the product sales area near Exit 3 on the second floor of the KTX station. No advance registration is required.

The centerpiece is a stopwatch challenge called "Time Attack: Hit 10.01 Seconds." Participants who stop the clock exactly at 10.01 seconds receive an Onnuri gift certificate, and 101 of them will be drawn to receive mobile coffee vouchers.

Visitors can take free instant photos using a frame built around "Modu," the office's official mascot, and post them on social media with the hashtag #NationalDataOffice_1stAnniversary to receive a limited-edition Modu LED keycap keyring. A separate booth invites citizens to write congratulatory messages for the office, with Modu-themed wet wipes and notepads for participants. Short interviews will also be recorded on site and posted on the office's official social media accounts.

The office said it has spent its first year strengthening the linkage and use of national data as the country's chief data officer, pursuing legislation of the National Data Basic Act and building a government-wide data management system. The act's bill was introduced in the National Assembly on May 27, 2026.

"If the past year was a time of laying a solid foundation stone for national data governance, the time ahead will be one of lived experience, in which that data makes people's daily lives safer and more prosperous," Ahn Hyung-joon, head of the National Data Office, said.

"At the threshold of autumn, I hope citizens passing through Seoul Station will join this first-anniversary event and feel the value of the National Data Office and of data in a more familiar way," he added.