By Kyu-seok Shim
SEOUL, Feb 27 (Reuters) – South Korea on Friday approved Google’s request to export the country’s high-precision map data to overseas servers, a major reversal after two decades of rejection that clears the way for the U.S. tech giant to enter a market dominated by local apps.
The approval was made “on the condition that strict security requirements are met,” the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said in a statement.
The conditions include blurring military and other sensitive security-related facilities, as well as restricting longitude and latitude coordinates for South Korean territory on products such as Google Maps an Google Earth, it said.
Google must process map data on locally based servers and is only allowed to export data related to navigation and direction services that have been pre-approved by the government.
The South Korean government also reserves the right to request revisions to maps, and Google must set up a security incident prevention framework to respond to emergency issues, the ministry added.
South Korea is just one of a few countries where Google Maps does not function properly, which has allowed local companies such as Naver and Kakao to dominate digital map services.
Seoul had shot down Google’s previous bids in 2007 and 2016 on national security grounds, citing risks that detailed map data could expose sensitive military and security facilities in a country that remains technically at war with North Korea.
The decision comes amid pressure from the United States on South Korea to address what Washington views as discrimination against U.S. tech companies.
(Reporting by Kyu-seok Shim; Editing by Ed Davies and Edwina Gibbs)
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