Taiwan quake disrupts some communications services in S. Korea

KT Corp., South Korea's largest fixed-line operator, said Wednesday their undersea fiber optic cables were disconnected in the southern seas off Taiwan due to a strong earthquake Tuesday night, disrupting communications services for local foreign companies.

KT said that an earthquake of 6.0 magnitude took place at 9:42 p.m. on Tuesday in the area 23 kilometers south of Taiwan, cutting cable lines under the sea, A total of 92 cable lines were found to have been damaged, the company said, adding that the number may rise.

Internet and international telephony services returned to almost normal through routing earlier on Wednesday, but communications cables, which foreign firms here in South Korea use, remained out of service, it said.

"We have to consult with other international companies to put the disconnected lines back to normal," a KT spokesman said.

"We are still in contact with them but we cannot say exactly when the service will be normalized since the fear of aftershocks remains," he added.

LG Dacom Corp., the nation's No. 2 fixed-line operator, also confirmed that its communications cable lines were damaged by the overnight earthquake.

According to the sources, more than 20 companies, including Citibank, HSBC, Reuters and Bloomberg, that were using communications lines between South Korea and Taiwan have been affected by the disconnection.

The Foreign Ministry is also affected by the communications disruption, a separate source said.

A Citibank official said its Internet banking service between its branches has been normalized but the service with other banks remains paralyzed.

Seoul, Dec. 27 (Yonhap News)