Interior ministry checks recovery of fire-hit national data center

The interior ministry said Wednesday that Interior Minister Yoon Ho-jung inspected the National Information Resources Service's Daejeon headquarters, the state data center hit by a battery fire in September 2025, to review recovery work and the government's digital safety systems.

Yoon walked through the computer room damaged in the fire and checked whether the systems have been fully restored to normal operation. He also reviewed digital safety and security monitoring, confirming a round-the-clock watch system. The removal and relocation of battery facilities from the computer room, a step taken because the batteries were suspected of causing the fire, has been completed without disruption.

"We have been doing everything we can to fundamentally shift the paradigm of how the state manages its information resources after last year's fire, and to build a foundation for administrative services that will not waver in any disaster," Yoon said. "We will continue to prepare carefully for alternatives to the Daejeon center's closure in 2030 and complete the disaster recovery system without setback, so that we can establish a stable administrative service system the public can trust."

Yoon was briefed on plans to move major information systems in step with the scheduled closure of the Daejeon center in 2030, including data backup and the construction of replacement infrastructure, and on a real-time data replication link now being built between the Daejeon center and a backup center in Gongju.

The ministry has drawn up a plan this year to build disaster recovery systems for 97 major information systems at the Daejeon center, and will construct them in stages through 2028.