Key military comms system down for 3 hours during South Korea-U.S. drills
A key South Korean military communications network was down for more than three hours during joint exercises with the United States.
The picture shows the Ministry of National Defense logo in Yongsan District, central Seoul.
YONHAP NEWS TV
One of the military's key command-and-control systems was out of service for more than three hours Wednesday night amid ongoing South Korea-U.S. joint exercises.
A Level 1 failure occurred at around 9 p.m. Wednesday, preventing the high-speed situation dissemination system operated by the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) from functioning properly, military sources said Thursday. A Level 1 failure refers to a loss of core system functions that makes it difficult to immediately share information on developing situations.
Military authorities carried out emergency repairs and restored the system at around 12:30 a.m. Thursday.
The command communications system allows the JCS, the Army, Navy and Air Force operations commands and units to share information and exchange operational orders in the event of an enemy provocation or crisis. Alternative means of communication, including secure telephones, can be used during an outage, but are inevitably less rapid and efficient.
The outage occurred while South Korean and U.S. military authorities were conducting the Crisis Management Exercise (CMX), a preliminary exercise for the Ulchi Freedom Shield joint exercise. The CMX is set to run between Tuesday and Friday, and is designed to practice response procedures by simulating a situation in which tensions on the Korean Peninsula escalate to the point just before a contingency.
North Korea also launched a ballistic missile from Wonsan on Wednesday morning. It was the North's second launch within a week following one on Aug. 6.
The JCS explained that there are multiple command-and-control systems, and that it maintained a normal readiness posture during the temporary outage by using other means and systems.
Military authorities believe the outage was more likely caused by a technical error during system operations than by an external attack such as hacking. The error is believed to have occurred while the Defense Integrated Data Center, which manages the communications systems of the military branches, was updating its operating system.
Failures occurred at around the same time not only in the high-speed situation dissemination system, but also in the Army's webmail system and equipment loss and damage tracking system, the Air Force's integrated safety management system, and personnel records management.
BY LEE YU-JUNG [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
