Why Google Maps is still broken in South Korea It might not be about national security anymore

It’s 2025, and if you try to get walking directions in Seoul using Google Maps, you will still run into the same dead end: the “Can’t find a way there” screen.

For many tourists, it’s both frustrating and baffling.

Google Maps offers turn-by-turn walking directions in cities as far-flung as Pyongyang, the capital of the hermit kingdom of North Korea — yet, in Seoul, one of the most digitally advanced cities in the world, it can’t guide you from your hotel to the nearest subway station?

For almost two decades, the issue has been blamed on national security. South Korea has strict laws that block the export of high-precision map data, supposedly to prevent misuse by hostile actors.

But in 2025, that argument is wearing thin, and a more fundamental tension is coming into focus: Should Google be allowed to freely commercialize taxpayer-funded public data without meeting the standards that domestic companies must follow?

Google says it needs Korea’s best map. But that’s only half the story.

The map at the center of this issue is a government-built, high-resolution 1:5000 digital base map maintained by the National Geographic Information Institute.

It’s publicly funded, annually updated, and rich with layers like sidewalks, pedestrian crossings and road boundaries. Any Korean citizen or entity can access and use it for free.

Google claims that without exporting this data to its global servers, it cannot fully enable core features like walking, biking or driving navigation.

The global map giant, which relies on processing map data through its global infrastructure, has repeatedly asked the Korean government for permission to export the NGII