South Korea’s government says Google has removed the display of latitude and longitude coordinates for the country from Google Maps and Google Earth, following a review of security conditions attached to a permit for exporting detailed map data.
The land ministry said an inter-agency body checked the company’s implementation of the requirements on 13 November. The review covered the global web and mobile versions of the services. Officials also examined how sensitive imagery would be protected, how map data would be processed and how security incidents would be handled.
The finding is a further step in a long-running dispute over access to South Korea’s detailed geographical data. It does not mean that all the planned map-data transfers and imagery replacements have already taken place.
What changed on the maps
The government said the removal and restriction of coordinate displays for South Korean territory had been implemented. Latitude and longitude are numerical references used to identify positions on the Earth. The government’s finding concerns their display and exposure on the services; it should not be read as a claim that every underlying geographical reference has been erased from all systems.
According to the review, Google developed a control system specifically for South Korean territory. The company also introduced a safeguard intended to block the distribution of an app update if restricted coordinates are detected. The government plans to keep checking that the restrictions remain in place.
Google submitted a final report on its implementation of the security conditions on 4 November. The inter-agency body met on the morning of 13 November to review the results, the ministry said.
Security imagery still to be replaced
The arrangements for pictures of military and security facilities involve both measures already taken and further work. Google has temporarily obscured facilities it identified in existing satellite imagery. Similar protection has been applied to historical imagery in Google Earth.
For those facilities, Street View images inside the sites and on roads within 50 metres of their boundaries have been removed. When domestically processed imagery becomes available, further Street View images inside and around military and security facilities are to be deleted. Officials have acknowledged that some facilities may still be visible in the temporary imagery.
Under the plan, imagery processed for security by South Korea’s National Geographic Information Institute will be supplied through a domestic partner. Google is required to replace the existing imagery when it receives the processed material and to use it without alteration. The full list and details of sensitive facilities are not to be supplied directly to Google.
How the permit works
The government gave conditional permission on 27 February 2026 for Google to export map data at a scale of 1:5,000. The decision followed an application submitted in February 2025. Previous requests in 2007 and 2016 had been rejected because of national security concerns.
The February decision was not an unrestricted authorisation to transfer all mapping information. A domestic partner is to process the original data on servers in South Korea, and the government is to review the material before export. The permitted data is limited to base maps and transport-network information needed for navigation and directions. Security-sensitive information such as contour lines is excluded.
The network information can include roads, their names, lane counts and speed limits. Google and a domestic partner have signed an agreement covering processing and supply of map data. The government’s latest review did not say that all of that processed data had already been sent abroad.
The conditions also provide for continuing oversight. A locally based officer is to coordinate the response to government requests about security incidents, with a system to pass those requests to Google’s response team. The government says it will monitor the export process and compliance with the conditions, and may suspend or revoke the permit if serious breaches occur.
For users, the longer-term question is how the approved data will affect mapping and navigation services. The permit and the new compliance review are stages in that process, rather than confirmation that a particular new navigation feature is already available.
