Overview

• Google reaffirmed its commitment to blur and mask sensitive military and government sites on both its maps and underlying satellite imagery in cooperation with Korean authorities.
• The company offered to purchase pre-blurred Korean satellite images from approved third-party providers to ensure no unmasked originals are stored abroad.
• Google argued that operating the 1:5,000-scale national base map through its global data centers is essential to support real-time turn-by-turn navigation for millions of international and domestic users.
• Seoul’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has scheduled a joint consultation panel for Friday to decide on the export request, though the timeline could shift again ahead of a planned bilateral summit.
• Earlier denials of similar Google export applications in 2007 and 2016 have made this review a focal point in ongoing U.S.-Korea trade discussions over potential non-tariff barriers.