KakaoTalk, South Korea’s dominant messenger app, experienced a temporary disruption on Friday following the Constitutional Court’s ruling to remove President Yoon Suk Yeol from office.

When Acting Chief Justice Moon Hyung-bae read the court’s verdict at approximately 11:22 a.m., upholding Yoon’s impeachment, users reported issues with KakaoTalk on both mobile and PC versions, being unable to send messages or log in to the system.

A notification in the chat screen read, "An unexpected error has occurred. This may be a temporary issue or related to your network connection. Plase try again later."

Kakao, the app's operator, said the temporary delay in message delivery was caused by a sudden spike in traffic, and the issue has since been resolved.

KakaoTalk is used by more than 90 percent of South Korea’s population, making it a critical communication channel.

This is not the first time local platforms have experienced issues during major national events. On Dec. 3 of last year, following Yoon's declaration of martial law that led to his impeachment, traffic surges caused access issues for major platforms, including Naver and Daum, which is operated by Kakao.

By Ahn Sung-mi (sahn@heraldcorp.com)