Manual Applications Required Even for Cremation Reservations... Ministry of Health and Welfare's Public Service Systems Shut Down One After Another

by Oh Yukyo

Published 28 Sep.2025 20:05(KST)

Organ Transplant Management System Down, Emergency Allocations Handled Manually
Delays Unavoidable for New Benefit Applications and Information Updates
Cremation Facility Reservations Unavailable, Inconvenience of Individual Phone Applications
Ministry of Health and Welfare: "All-Out Efforts for Rapid Normalization... On-Site Applications Also Accepted"

With the fire at the National Information Resources Management Institute, key information systems in the health and welfare sector have come to a halt, leading to a tangible administrative paralysis. As various welfare benefit applications and the organ transplant management system have been suspended, if the situation continues, public anxiety and a surge in civil complaints appear inevitable.

Ministry of Health and Welfare Announces Partial Service Suspension Due to Fire at National Information Resources. Ministry of Health and Welfare Website.

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare on September 28, since the fire on the 26th, most public administrative services operated by the ministry and its affiliated agencies-such as Bokjiro, the e-Haneul Funeral Information System, and the Korea Network for Organ Sharing (KONOS)-have been inaccessible.

In particular, with the KONOS system, which manages information for organ donors and transplant candidates and oversees the overall transplantation process, rendered inoperative, online organ matching has become impossible. The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced that organ allocation and transplantation will be carried out manually according to the urgency of each case, but anxiety among patients waiting for transplants and their families is growing.

Bokjiro is also restricted, so for the time being, related civil complaints must be submitted manually via in-person visits, phone, or fax. The ministry predicted that most welfare benefits had already been paid out on September 25, so an immediate 'payment crisis' is unlikely. However, delays in new applications or information updates are unavoidable.

The e-Haneul Funeral Information System, which allows online reservations for cremation facilities nationwide, has also been suspended, so individuals must currently apply directly to each crematorium by phone or other means, causing ongoing inconvenience.

Fortunately, emergency medical servers are managed by the Central Emergency Medical Center, not the national information resources, so they were not affected by the fire. Services such as searching for emergency medical care at hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies are operating normally.

However, as recovery is expected to take considerable time, there are growing concerns that, starting Monday, a surge in civil complaints will occur at local administrative welfare centers and other sites.