South Korea Rejects Google's Bid for Mapping Data Due Over Security Concerns

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The South Korean authorities on Friday rejected the request of US tech giant Google to take cartographic information outside the country because of security reasons stemming from the conflict with North Korea, South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said in a statement.

"There are security concerns amid the confrontation between the South and the North… [The ministry] suggested Google come up with supplementary measures to relieve security concerns, but Google did not accept this," the statement said, as quoted by the Yonhap news agency.

The ministry added that the IT company could use government maps if it deleted or blurred information about important military and civil facilities from them.

Seoul and Pyongyang signed a ceasefire after the 1950-1953 Korean War, but the two Koreas formally remain in a state of war. The situation was complicated after North Korea declared itself a nuclear power in 2005 and conducted nuclear tests after that, having earlier withdrawn from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that it ratified in 1985.