A Microsoft service outage disrupted email sending and receiving at some South Korean companies, and the government has formed an emergency response team.

The Ministry of Science and ICT said on Nov. 14 it is checking service restoration progress and damage reports related to the recent Microsoft 365 outage to minimise inconvenience to local users.

The disruption occurred on Nov. 13, South Korea time, and some companies in South Korea experienced business disruption, including email sending and receiving not working smoothly.

Microsoft explained that the outage was not related to a cyberattack or AI. It said an issue that occurred during a past network capacity upgrade surfaced after recent network changes and led to the disruption.

The ministry confirmed, through Korea Microsoft, the status of service restoration and reports of inconvenience and damage among local users. It also instructed major domestic platform operators to conduct checks of their own systems to prevent similar disruptions.

Starting on Nov. 14, the ministry will form a joint emergency response team with Korea Microsoft and continue to monitor the service restoration status and disruption among local users. A ministry official said, "We will do our best so that the public can use digital services stably."