SOME STRANGE FACTS ABOUT SOUTH KOREA

This is probably ironic since South Korea has one of the fastest Internet connections in the world, faster than that in the US. Yet, it is the only country that doesn’t provide driving or walking directions on Google Maps. Interestingly, it is also something that North Korea has but South Korea doesn’t. The reason for these restrictions is that following the Korean War in the early 50s, the Spatial Data Industry Promotion Act and the Promotion of Military Bases and Installations Act have been put in place. These restrict access to map data outside South Korea and prevents the data from falling into the wrong hands across the DMZ (demilitarized zone). Though in 2016, the Korean government offered the map data on the condition that important locations, military outposts, and government offices be shown at low resolution, Google refused. Apple Maps also has to follow the same restrictions. There are, however, South Korea’s own map services like Naver and Kakao that provide directions for navigation in the country.

August 7, 2022 | 9:39 pm