Seoul: The South Korean government on Tuesday temporarily halted its assessment of Google's application to export high-precision maps overseas, requesting the U.S. tech firm to provide additional documentation.

According to Yonhap News Agency, during a review meeting, a government consultative body requested Google to submit revised documents by February 5. Consequently, the review process is paused until then, as confirmed by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The consultative panel comprises several relevant ministries, including defense, foreign affairs, and science.

The meeting marked the third review of this issue since Google submitted its request in February. The company is seeking approval to transfer 1:5,000-scale high-precision map data to its data centers abroad. Despite Google's expressed willingness to comply with South Korea's security requirements by removing coordinate data for the South Korean region, these changes were not reflected in the submitted documents.

"Due to the discrepancy between Google's public statements and the submitted application, we were unable to deliberate on the matter," the panel stated. "We therefore determined that clear confirmation and additional review are necessary."

The postponement of a final decision had been widely anticipated due to the sensitivity of the issue between the South Korean and U.S. governments. This comes amidst the delayed release of a joint fact sheet covering the outcomes of their leaders' summit held last month in Gyeongju, as well as recently concluded trade negotiations.

Currently, Google offers South Korean maps using publicly available 1:25,000-scale map data combined with aerial and satellite imagery. The United States has identified the map data issue as a significant non-tariff barrier. It remains unclear whether the data transfer topic was addressed during the bilateral summit between President Lee Jae Myung and U.S. President Donald Trump at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gathering on October 29.

Google has made similar requests in the past, notably in 2007 and 2016, but these were rejected by Seoul due to national security concerns, particularly the potential exposure of military bases and other sensitive facilities.