The government has decided to reach a conclusion regarding Google's request to export domestic high-precision maps by August.
According to Yonhap News Agency on the 11th, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and other related departments have reported that it is difficult to determine whether to allow map exports by the first review deadline in mid-May. They plan to continue the review until the second deadline of August 11.
The decision regarding the export of map information will be made unanimously by the 'Survey Results and Export Coordination Group,' which includes the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Unification, the National Intelligence Service, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, and the Ministry of Science and ICT. Therefore, if the Ministry of National Defense or the National Intelligence Service, sensitive to security, opposes, obtaining export approval will be difficult.
The coordination group must notify the results within 60 days from the date of application and can extend the deadline by 60 days. Holidays and public holidays are excluded from the review period. It is expected that the coordination group will hold meetings close to the deadline to make the final decision on export approval.
Earlier, Google requested map exports in 2011 and 2016, but the government denied both requests, citing concerns over information leakage if map data containing information about military bases and security facilities were stored on overseas servers.
This request comes amid concerns from the U.S. side, which has raised map export restrictions as a 'non-tariff barrier' since the start of the Trump administration. Google applied on February 18 of this year to allow the transfer of high-precision domestic maps at a scale of 1:5,000 to Google data centers located overseas. This map expresses a distance of 50 meters as 1 cm on the map.
Currently, Google provides Korean maps that combine aerial and satellite images with publicly available data at a scale of 1:25,000, but it is evaluated as having lower quality compared to Naver and Kakao, which utilize high-precision maps. The government agreed to allow map data exports if Google establishes a server in the country, but Google has not built one.
In this request for map exports, Google has asked the Korean government to promise to apply 'blur' processing in exchange for providing the coordinates of the locations. However, giving the coordinates is effectively the same as disclosing the locations of security facilities, leaving security concerns still unresolved.
In response to these concerns, Google stated that it would purchase and utilize domestic map images, but it only intends to perform blur processing among the camouflage, blur, and low-resolution processing conducted by domestic corporations. Among the domestic corporations' processing of security facility maps, camouflage accounts for 82%, blur 12%, and low resolution 6%.