[Opinion] Computer Glitch at Pres. Office

The first thing a U.S. president takes over when taking office is “the nuclear football,” or a specially outfitted briefcase used to authorize the use of nuclear weapons in an emergency. It first appeared in the 1960s shortly after the Cuban missile crisis under the John F. Kennedy administration. In response, the Soviet Union also introduced a similar measure in 1983 under leader Yuri Andropov. As for Korea, the president assumes power at midnight on Feb. 25 by taking over a telephone satchel for presidential emergency approval as the commander-in-chief.

The transfer of the telephone satchel, however, is no more than a symbol of a change in government. In this regard, the real transfer of the presidency must be understood by looking at the new president beginning his term in office. To our surprise, the presidential office’s computer system is said to have broken down on the evening of Feb. 25, the day of the president’s inauguration. It took ten days to restart the whole system, which has been out of order at times. President Lee Myung-bak admitted to this during a briefing by the Public Administration and Security Ministry Saturday.

Aiming to create a “digitalized Cheong Wa Dae (presidential office),” Lee’s predecessor Roh Moo-hyun developed the Internet stockpile system “e-Jiwon, which won a patent under the names of Roh and five researchers who had developed the software in Feb. 2006. e-Jiwon is an acronym for “digital intelligence garden,” designed to readily figure out the entire process of business management from business log and approval to record. Roh promised to take over every data e-Jiwon had in an effort to help the smooth running of the next administration. But his words proved to be empty, given that the entire computer system shut down and also had frequent failures.

It is unbelievable for something this absurd to happen in Korea, given its high status in the global IT industry. Moreover, how could such a thing occur in the presidential office, which is the heart of national administration? We should not give the administration the benefit of the doubt and consider it a simple mistake. The presidential transition committee should be ashamed for accomplishing nothing, except for raising public worry over English-language education. The government should investigate the computer shutdown to identify those responsible and prevent the same mistake from being repeated. It should also take this opportunity to come up with a more thorough framework to make the change in government proceed more smoothly.

Editorial Writer Lee Jin-nyong, jinnyong@donga.com