Postal service's website crashes due to people flocking to buy President Moon stamp

By Park Sae-jin Posted : August 25, 2017, 09:33 Updated : August 25, 2017, 09:33

[Korea Post]



South Koreans' love towards President Moon Jae-in has caused unexpected web traffic on the website of South Korea's national postal service on Friday when people flocked in to buy the second additional issue of a commemorative stamp album marking the 100th day of president's inauguration.

Initially, the Korea Post planned to only print the stamps once, but due to its unexpected explosive popularity, the postal service decided to print the second issue and started receiving reservation orders through its website on 09:00 am (0000GMT) Friday morning.

The stamp album, which was sold out in a few hours when it was sold at local post offices a week ago, also drew countless people to the postal service's online store, crashing the whole website down.

"The website has crashed, as it was expected," wrote a user "Yeowon" from an online community Clien. About a dozen of other online users showed anxiety wondering when the website would go back on line. "I felt so devastated when I failed to get the album when I stood outside the postal office in my neighborhood for about an hour. I really need to get one this time," said a user "Soopa".

As of 09:30 am, the Korea Post's website is virtually inaccessible but when it is accessed, it shows the minimized version of the web page explaining there is too much traffic bottlenecked due to people rushing to my the stamp album.

The postal service pre-announced that it would only receive orders for the album priced at 23,000 won (20 US dollars) through its online store for three days starting on Friday. No additional album sets will be printed afterward.

The album set includes a large stamp showing Moon and his wife waving together in front of a large national flag, surrounded by 14 small stamps retracing the course of his life from school days.

Initially, some 20,000 albums were to be released, but the postal service decided to issue more because their explosive popularity led to the suspension of pre-orders on the first day of online sales on August 9.

A former human rights lawyer and pro-democracy activist, Moon, 64, took office on May 10 to succeed jailed ex-president Park Geun-hye who was ousted for her role in a corruption scandal. His approval rating has been high always above 70 percent.

 
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