SK, Kakao, Naver heads face grilling by lawmakers over unprecedented outage

From left are SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Kakao founder Kim Beom-su and Naver founder Lee Hae-jin / Yonhap

Lawmakers criticize Kakao's insufficient preparedness for disasters

By Park Jae-hyuk

The worst-ever disruption in Kakao's services, caused by a fire last Saturday at the company's main data center in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, has prompted lawmakers to summon the owners of the companies involved in the incident to a National Assembly audit as witnesses.

The ruling People Power Party (PPP) and the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) agreed on Monday to summon SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Kakao founder Kim Beom-su and Naver founder Lee Hae-jin to an audit of the Ministry of Science and ICT next week. SK C&C CEO Park Sung-ha, Kakao CEO Hong Eun-taek and Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon have also been summoned.

Kakao's main servers were located inside an SK C&C building in Seongnam where the fire broke out.

Both parties leveled criticism at Kakao for its insufficient preparedness for disasters.

While PPP floor leader Joo Ho-young pointed out Kakao's failure to set up an independent data center, DPK floor leader Park Hong-geun attributed the nationwide chaos last weekend to Kakao's negligence in its duty to establish backup systems.

Both parties also hinted at enacting laws regulating Kakao, but they had initially differed when it comes to summoning the Kakao founder to the Assembly audit.

The PPP just wanted to summon professional managers, who can give in-depth explanations.

As the DPK insisted on the need to summon Kakao's de facto owner, the ruling party also raised the necessity of summoning Naver's founder, given that the fire also caused a temporary disruption in Naver's services. In response, the main opposition party sought to summon the SK Group chairman.

Both parties agreed to summon all of them, on condition of asking only questions that are related to the data center fire.

Lawmakers of the National Policy Committee also agreed that day to summon the CEOs of KakaoBank, Kakao Pay and Dunamu to the audit of the financial regulators next Monday to ask how the three fintech affiliates coped with the service outage.

Rep. Sim Sang-jeung of the minor opposition Justice Party also urged Kakao Mobility CEO Ryu Geung-seon to appear at the audit of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport later this week.

All eyes on SK's response

Some observers are monitoring SK Group's response to the recent accident, as Kakao is expected to ask SK C&C to compensate users of the ubiquitous messaging and settlement service.

Rep. Jung Chung-rae of the DPK, who chairs the Science, ICT, Broadcasting, and Communications Committee, criticized SK Group, as its subsidiary, Tmap Mobility, promoted its taxi-hailing and chauffeur services as alternatives to Kakao Mobility's services, despite the group's responsibility for the fire at its building.

According to industry officials, SK Group discussed follow-up measures with SK C&C. Kakao also said it is in talks with SK C&C regarding compensation for its losses.

However, the messenger app operator remained uncertain about the timeline for the full recovery of its services. As of Monday afternoon, its email service was still unavailable.