KOREA HIT BY Y2K BUG Sunday, January 2, 2000

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Jan. 2  Most Y2K problems as the millennium turned were minor, such as nuisances at Scandinavian hospitals and a noncritical glitch with the U.S. military.

But one 902-unit apartment building in Korea lost its heat and hot water. And experts warn that more problems may arise tomorrow, when computers are started up on the first business day of 2000. The system failure on the outskirts of Seoul is regarded as the world9s first large-scale disturbance to many people9s lives caused by a Y2K-related malfunction. Heat and hot water service were restored by Sunday morning.

The apartment complex9s computer system, which was installed about a decade ago, was not updated to be Y2K-compliant.

It had been feared that the Y2K bug could cause computer systems with software that identifies years only by their last two digits to crash or malfunction Jan. 1, 2000, by reading 2000 as "1900."

Feds Give Assurances

The U.S. Federal Reserve said today that the millennium computer rollover in the world9s largest economy was proceeding without a hitch on the second day of 2000.

But Fed officials cautioned they would not let down their guard until businesses and financial markets resumed full operations in the first business week of 2000.

"Obviously we9re confident but there is still a question mark," said Doug Tillet, spokesman for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

He said the New York Fed had reduced its staff monitoring the Y2K transition.

Minor Global Glitches

Problems with heart monitoring equipment in Swedish hospitals were one of the few signs of the millennium bug biting elsewhere as computer experts prepared for the reopening of major financial markets and businesses.

Electrocardiograph machines at the main hospital in Uppsala, north of Stockholm, and at regional hospitals in Karlstad and Linkoping, stopped working, although a spokeswoman told the Svenska Dagbladet daily patients9 safety was not threatened.

In Germany, a salesman who logged into his home banking computer account found a malfunction had inflated his wealth to more than 12 million marks ($6.2 million)  as of Dec.30, 1899. But it was unclear this was due to the millennium bug.

And in Italy, a computer-regulated clock on a church campanile in a small northern town chimed earlier than usual on New Year9s Day, a local news agency reported. Checks revealed the computer thought it was 1980 instead of 2000.

The only incident noted on the Web site of the International Y2K Cooperation Centre was for Gambia, which reported computer problems in some government departments due in part to the bug.

The Pentagon said Saturday that a failure in a ground-based system prevented officials from handling information from some U.S. intelligence satellites for a few hours Friday night. France said one of its defense satellite systems lost the ability to detect equipment failures.

A computer linked to radiation monitoring systems seized up at Japanese nuclear power plant and door locks sealing off sensitive areas refused to open at nuclear plants in Arkansas and Spain.

All Systems Go

Such problems were few and far between. Across the world, markets, telecommunications and other infrastructure officials reported all systems were go.

Even countries where chaos and disruption can be daily ordeals reported plain sailing.

Venezuela, engulfed by deadly mudslides and floods earlier this month, said its oil industry operations were working normally. So were oil operations in Nigeria, Africa9s most populous nation where experts feared its chaotic infrastructure would buckle.

In the Middle East, banks and stock exchanges are already doing business,and they9re reporting no signs of Y2K computer problems.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

-- Jeanette Thomas (ou_2000@berkshire.net), January 03, 2000