(LEAD) Gov't online civil service portal back temporarily after disruptions

▲ Signs notifying disruptions to the interior ministry's network are seen at an entrance to a district office in Seoul on Nov. 17, 2023. (Yonhap)

(LEAD) gov't network-disruption

(LEAD) Gov't online civil service portal back temporarily after disruptions

(ATTN: CHANGES headline, lead; UPDATES throughout with service resumption)

SEOUL, Nov. 18 (Yonhap) -- The government's online civil service portal has come back temporarily, the interior ministry said Saturday, after being inaccessible for over a day.

The portal, Government24, had gone down Friday, leading to an unprecedented situation where all services of government-issued certificates and documents to the public became paralyzed.

The interior ministry said it decided to temporarily resume Government24 services to check whether issues remain after conducting multiple examinations. Some civil services on the portal have become available as of 10 a.m.

The government said it is monitoring the situation in real-time and will make efforts for a full normalization of the service.

On Friday, the government's administrative network, Saeol, became inaccessible since 8:40 a.m., halting municipal government document services. Government24 also went down later in the day, leading to major inconveniences in public services.

The disruption has reportedly been caused by an error in the authentication process in accessing Saeol.

Some 100 network equipment company officials and public officials have been attempting to fix the issue at the National Information Resources Service in Daejeon, 139 kilometers south of Seoul, where the interior ministry's network servers are located.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo convened a meeting of relevant agencies to discuss response measures, apologized over the service disruptions and vowed to make all-out efforts for the recovery, according to his office.

"I apologize over the inconvenience and confusion experienced by the public from the halt to civil services of public agencies," Han said. "We are making all-out recovery efforts with private sector experts, and we will do our best for a swift normalization."

President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered Friday the creation of a task force to handle the breakdown of the government's online civil service portal. Yoon is currently in San Francisco, where he is attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

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