Google Submits Supplementary Map Export Documents to Government...Final Decision May Take Months

Supplementary documents submitted late the previous night...including measures such as banning coordinate exposure
Ministry of Land says, "Discussions to be held going forward...no deadline will be set"

Google has submitted additional documents to the Korean government for the overseas transfer of high-precision map data. The government plans to review the supplementary materials provided by Google and then decide whether to grant final approval for the export, but it has not set a specific deadline.

According to the IT industry on February 6, Google sent supplementary documents related to the export of high-precision maps to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport by email at around 11 p.m. the previous night. Earlier, the Consultative Body on Survey Results and Overseas Transfer under the National Geographic Information Institute of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, which decides whether high-precision maps can be taken abroad, postponed its decision by an additional 60 days in November last year and requested Google to supplement its documentation. February 6 was the deadline set by the consultative body for the submission of the additional documents.

The supplementary documents submitted by Google reportedly state that the company will accept most of the conditions set by the government, including masking domestic security facilities and prohibiting the disclosure of coordinates. Google had already indicated at a press briefing in September last year that it was willing to comply with requirements such as masking security facilities and banning the exposure of coordinates. The documents are also said to include technical details on how the company plans to process the map data going forward.

However, the materials are reported not to include concrete details regarding one of the Korean government’s demands, namely the establishment of a domestic data center. Google’s position is that further review is needed before it can decide whether to build a data center in Korea.

The decision on Google’s request to export high-precision maps has already been postponed three times. Google applied to the government in February last year for the export of high-precision maps at a scale of 1:5000. The consultative body subsequently delayed its deliberation twice, and in November last year, when it was required under current regulations to reach a conclusion, it instead cited deficiencies in Google’s documentation and requested that the company submit supplementary materials within 60 days. It is unprecedented for a decision on a foreign company’s request to export map data to be postponed three times. Google had also applied to export high-precision maps of Korea in 2007 and 2016, but both applications were rejected on national security grounds.

It is expected to take several more months before the Korean government reaches a final decision on whether to allow the export of high-precision maps. Not only does the consultative body need to deliberate on the contents of Google’s supplementary documents, but factors such as tariff negotiations with the United States could also come into play. Trade and tariff negotiations between Korea and the United States are currently underway, and there is speculation that the U.S. side may put the high-precision map export issue on the negotiating table. Korea’s regulations on the export of high-precision maps are one of the representative non-tariff barriers highlighted by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) in its National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers (NTE).

An official from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said, “We plan to share and discuss the contents through the consultative body going forward,” adding, “We will review the opinions of each ministry and then decide whether to allow the export of the maps, and we intend to make the decision without setting a separate deadline.”