YOON VOWS IMPROVEMENT IN STATE SERVICES

[Anchor Lead]

Following massive disruptions of Kakao services over the weekend, President Yoon Suk-yeol has promised to improve related systems and prevent recurrences, saying that the private communication service is equivalent to basic state infrastructure for the people. The presidential office and the government is now working to devise measures to better oversee private extra telecom operators and manage disasters affecting their services.

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President Yoon Suk-yeol offered words of comfort to the people who suffered from Kakao's unprecedented service disruptions. He pledged to improve related systems to better deal with such communication crises and prevent similar incidents in the future, as Kakao's services are so popular that they feel like a state-operated utility for the people.

[Soundbite] Yoon Suk-yeol(President) : "Systems should be improved to prevent these incidents in advance, report them immediately and repair related services quickly."

The presidential office immediately launched efforts to follow up on Yoon's promise. One of the proposed measures is to include private data centers into state disaster facilities. A high-ranking presidential official said they are reviewing measures to manage and supervise private data centers from scratch, with the goal to make the system flawless. But he cautioned that excessive regulations could make market entry barriers higher and strengthen the monopoly. The issue also topped the agenda for a presidential aides' meeting, presided over by the president. They vowed to address the issue thoroughly and completely. They also decided to install a pan-governmental cyber security task force under the national security office while holding regular meetings for inspection. Yoon also mentioned the need to overhaul the service platform monopolized by a specific company.

[Soundbite] Yoon Suk-yeol(President) : "A certain private service is as essential as a state infrastructure facility, the gov’t should response systematically for the interest of the public."

The presidential office highlighted the need to look into whether or not the monopolistic platform company is fulfilling its social responsibilities. The top office explained it is a wake up call to check and ensure that private telecom operators running de-facto state infrastructure services do not make profit while shifting the financial burden to the people.