Quote 1:

> That is because South Korean laws require that companies store core geospatial data locally, something Google has long refused to do.

Quote 2:

> That's because the SK government has refused to give Google access to their official map data, because of "security concerns".

Quote 3:

> Google said Tuesday it will accept the South Korean government's security requirements to remove coordinates for the Korean region from its map in order to secure approval to export high-precision map data overseas.

(via https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/business/tech-science/20250909/...)

(Quote 1) from the article is my prior understanding of the situation. Your claim (Quote 2) doesn't match my prior understanding either. I did some googling, and found additional reporting (Quote 3), which seems to be more precise and accurately contextualized than (Quote 1).

I am personally quite sympathetic to the posture of KR's government, regarding data sovereignty of high-precision map data. I understand that Google and other tech companies were always legally able to serve maps of SK of comparable quality from a datacenter in SK.

I assume if you really want this data for military purposes, you have enough budget to do something beyond free Google maps output. There are many commercial providers who are already taking pictures of the globe.