Disaster Recovery System Hindered by Budget Constraints... Gongju Center Opening Still Delayed

Criticism Over Insufficient Redundancy Amid Public Service Paralysis
Uncertainty Surrounds Opening of "Gongju Center" First Discussed in 2008
Government Lags Behind Private Sector in Cloud Redundancy

The National Information Resources Service (NIRS) has been pushing to open a "disaster recovery dedicated data center" as its fourth center in Gongju, South Chungcheong Province, but it has remained unopened for 18 years due to budget shortages and other issues. As the paralysis of government networks caused by the fire at the NIRS Daejeon headquarters continues for the fourth consecutive day, critics point out that the damage could have been mitigated if the Gongju Center, designed to back up and operate data using a dualization method, had been operational.

According to relevant authorities on September 29, the NIRS Gongju Center was established to ensure that administrative work would not be disrupted even if both the Daejeon and Gwangju centers were simultaneously paralyzed in an emergency, unlike existing data centers. The project was based on the mid-term comprehensive information security plan established in 2008, with the initial goal of completing construction by 2012. However, due to two feasibility re-evaluations, seven failed contractor selections, and changes in bidding methods, construction did not begin until 2019.

Even after that, the project faced interruptions due to increased costs for infrastructure work, a re-examination of the business plan's feasibility, and a shortage of supervision fees, with the center building finally completed in May 2023. In November of the same year, following a government administrative network failure, the plan was revised to introduce an "active-active disaster recovery (DR)" system at the Gongju Center, resulting in another delay to the opening date.

The active-active disaster recovery system is a structure in which two centers operate simultaneously, exchanging data in real time. Even if one side experiences a failure, the other can immediately take over services and continue operations without interruption. Unlike the "passive (manual) backup" method, which only backs up data under normal circumstances and initiates recovery after a failure occurs, the active-active system allows both centers to operate at the same time, providing stable data protection. However, due to project delays, only 18.982 billion won out of the 25.15 billion won budget was executed last year, and as of the end of May this year, the construction progress rate was only 66.9%. The Gongju Center was scheduled to open next month, but this is also uncertain.

Amid the near paralysis of the government network due to a fire at the National Information Resources Service, a notice stating "Access with mobile pass is not allowed due to the fire at the National Information Resources Service" is posted at the entrance of the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul on September 29, 2025. Photo by Jo Yongjun

The domestic IT private sector has also criticized the government's insufficient cloud dualization measures for backing up data in the event of a disaster. An IT service industry official pointed out, "The main reason cloud server dualization was not properly implemented is likely due to cost issues," adding, "It is ironic that the public sector, which handles far more critical information than the private sector, was actually less prepared." Lee Yongseok, Director of the Digital Government Innovation Office at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, recently stated at a briefing, "Although disaster recovery systems have been established, some are only at a minimal scale or exist merely in the form of data backups," and "We could not proceed with full dualization due to budget constraints."

Another official also referenced the government's move to mandate dualization measures for some companies after the SK C&C data center fire in Pangyo three years ago, saying, "There is a clear double standard in how service outages are handled in the private versus public sectors," and questioned, "With recovery still incomplete, how will responsibility be addressed?" Professor Yeom Heungyeol of the Department of Information Security at Soonchunhyang University stated, "System dualization is essential for rapid service recovery in the event of incidents like this fire or cyberattacks."

Meanwhile, Kakao stated that it has established a multi-disaster recovery system of "active standby" or higher. For certain layers of its key services, it has implemented an even more robust active-active system to enhance stability. The company explained that it has triplicated data and operational tools at the data center level and secured approximately 20 Tbps of communication bandwidth for smooth inter-center connectivity. A 20 Tbps bandwidth is sufficient to simultaneously transmit about 4,200 HD movies (600MB each) every second.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.