After the conclusion of the next South Korean-US summit, officials said Sunday, the South Korean government is likely to delay its decision on whether to permit Google to export the nation’s high-precision map data abroad.
According to Yonhap news agency, the U.S. tech giant applied for permission to transfer high-precision map data at a scale of 1:5,000 to its data centers overseas in February at the state-run National Geographic Information Institute.
The review panel must inform Google of its judgment within 60 days of the application date, with a 60-day extension possible, in accordance with applicable legislation. The extension was used by the South Korean government, which was supposed to make a decision by the second deadline on August 11.
“Despite the timeline, there is a high possibility that the decision deadline will be further extended,” a government source stated. “Reaching a conclusion before the Korea-U.S. summit could influence other agenda items to be discussed at the meeting.”
As Trump announced last week that Lee will visit the White House in two weeks, Seoul and Washington are currently negotiating a schedule for a summit between President Lee Jae Myung and U.S. President Donald Trump.
The U.S. has identified the proposed map transfer as a major non-tariff barrier, but it has also generated intense discussion over national security, digital sovereignty, and other trade issues. However, the current trade talks between the two countries did not address the issue.
“The map issue and other security-related issues would be discussed at the next Korea-U.S. summit,” a Seoul presidential office official stated.
The map data export review group, which includes representatives from the National Intelligence Service and key ministries like the defense, foreign affairs, industry, and science ministries, will decide on the Google issue.
At the moment, Google offers South Korean maps using satellite and aerial images together with publicly accessible lower-resolution 1:25,000-scale map data. When compared to domestic map service providers, this leads to lower-quality mapping services.
Similar requests were earlier made by Google in 2007 and 2016, but Seoul turned them down on the grounds of national security, pointing to the possible disclosure of critical sites such as military bases.
The government put up requirements in 2016 that Google either host the data on domestic servers or hide out sensitive sites, but Google refused.
Google has requested the coordinate data for security facilities and has indicated that it is willing to comply with the blurring this time. The security community within the government is concerned about the additional request for the coordinate data.
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