Can You Use Google Maps in Korea?

Google Maps will find a place for you in Korea, but its walking directions are limited here. For getting around, it is easier to keep Naver Map or KakaoMap alongside it. A nineteen-year deadlock over exporting the map data was conditionally broken in February 2026 — and if you open the app today, nothing about it has changed.

At a glance

Search works
Place names, locations and usually subway routes come through fine.
Walking directions are limited
Driving routes and bus information are unreliable too.
Conditionally approved 27 Feb 2026
With seven security conditions attached.
Nothing exported yet
The most recent confirmed report is from April 2026.

Why only Korea

Calculating a route needs detailed map data, and Korea controls the export of that data by law — the Act on the Establishment and Management of Spatial Data. With the peninsula still formally under armistice, the exposure of military and security facilities is the stated concern, and applications in 2007 and 2016 were both refused.

What Google asked for is not the ultra-high-precision map people imagine. It is the 1:5,000 national base map: the same dataset Naver and Kakao already use, and one that has passed the government's own security review.

Why scale decides this is best explained in Google's own words. On a 1:25,000 map, 250 metres of ground has to fit inside one centimetre — which makes "turn right at the next junction" impossible to generate in a city of dense side streets. Hence the arrangement you rarely see anywhere else: the map draws, and only the directions are missing.

What was actually decided in February 2026

On 27 February 2026 the Survey Results Export Consultation Panel conditionally approved the export of Google's 1:5,000 map data. The panel is nine bodies plus outside experts, among them the National Geographic Information Institute, the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, and the National Intelligence Service.

Seven conditions came with it.

Imagery security processing — only imagery already cleared may be used, and military and security facilities must be obscured in Google Earth's historical imagery and in Street View.
Domestic servers — processing must run on servers operated by a local partner company.
Government review before export — processed data is checked before it leaves the country.
Minimum necessary scope — only what directions require; sensitive material such as contour lines is excluded.
Prompt correction — changes to military or security facilities must be reflected immediately.
Incident response — a prevention framework and an emergency cut-off must be in place.
A resident manager in Korea — a map lead based locally, in standing contact with the government.

Approved is not the same as working

The permission is conditional. The conditions have to be met before data actually moves, and data has to move before the app changes.

As reported by The Korea Herald on 19 April 2026, since 27 February there had been no follow-up meeting, no compliance plan submitted by Google, and no export of any data. The ministry's position is that it will reconvene once it receives an implementation plan; no deadline has been set.

So when you see a headline saying Google Maps now works in Korea, check in the app whether your route actually generates before you rely on it. Things may have moved since this page was verified — or they may not have.

What to use instead

Two apps do the work locally.

	Naver Map	KakaoMap
Walking directions	⭕	⭕
Public transit	⭕ live arrivals	⭕ live arrivals
Driving navigation	⭕	⭕
English	Partial	Partial
Strongest at	Shops, reviews, opening hours	Subway detail, Korean place-name search

Either one alone will get you around. Both is better if you have room, because business listings are often on one and not the other.

English search does find most well-known places, but pasting the Korean business name or the road-name address matches far more precisely.

The workflow that actually works

Find the place in whichever app you prefer. Google Maps' search and reviews are fine up to this point.
Note its Korean name and address. Chains often have several branches with the same name.
Paste that Korean address into Naver Map or KakaoMap and take the route from there.
Re-check immediately before leaving — last trains and opening hours in particular differ between apps.

Carry the Korean addresses as screenshots

Screenshot the Korean address of your accommodation and your main destinations in advance. If your data drops or an app misbehaves, showing the screen to a taxi driver solves it.

For Korean taxis, showing the destination in Korean is the most reliable method there is. One screen beats explaining an English pronunciation.

Frequently asked questions

Does Google Maps not work at all in Korea?

Place search and the map display work, and subway routes usually do too. What is missing is walking directions, and driving routes and bus information are unreliable.

Why is Korea different?

Export of precise map data is controlled under the Act on the Establishment and Management of Spatial Data. With the country still under armistice, exposure of military and security facilities is the stated concern, and applications in 2007 and 2016 were both refused.

I heard it was approved in 2026?

On 27 February 2026 the Survey Results Export Consultation Panel did conditionally approve the export of 1:5,000 map data. Because it is conditional, the conditions have to be met first — and as of April 2026 no implementation plan had been submitted and no data exported.

What are the conditions?

Seven: imagery security processing, use of domestic servers, government review before export, restriction to the minimum needed for directions, immediate correction when military or security facilities change, an incident-response framework, and a resident map manager in Korea.

Did Google ask for ultra-high-precision maps?

No. It applied for the 1:5,000 national base map — the same data Naver and Kakao already use, which has passed the government's security review.

Naver Map or KakaoMap?

Either will get you around. Naver Map carries deeper shop, review and opening-hours information; KakaoMap is stronger on subway detail and Korean place-name search. Many people keep both because listings appear on one and not the other.

Can I search in English?

Most well-known places come up in English. Pasting the Korean business name or road-name address is more precise, and reduces the chance of picking the wrong branch of a chain.