The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 14th that it has decided to suspend the decision on the export of the high-precision national basic map (1/5000 digital topographic map) requested by Google and extend the processing period by 60 days.
Currently, exporting high-precision map data from South Korea to foreign companies such as Google is prohibited.
Earlier in 2016, the processing period for export was extended, and after thorough review, the inter-agency council ultimately decided against the export.
This decision by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport was made at the inter-agency meeting on map export held at the National Geographic Information Institute that afternoon. The council included the Chairperson of the National Geographic Information Institute, as well as representatives from the Ministry of Science and ICT, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Unification, Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of the Interior and Safety, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, National Intelligence Service, and private commissioners.
The council has been continuously consulting not only with related agencies but also with Google. As a result, it was determined that further in-depth discussions regarding national security and domestic industries are necessary.
In the future, after gathering sufficient opinions from the spatial information industry, a decision on the export will be made by August 11.