Kakao Map streets ahead with North's capital displayed in detail

Kakao Map, the mobile map service provided by Kakao, has gained attention online after several locations in North Korea were found to have been displayed in detail on its service.

Various locations, including Kim Il Sung University and Pyongyang University of Education in the North's capital city of Pyongyang, as well as specific train stations, were shown on the map, according to local online posts Monday.

This compares with Naver Map, operated by the portal operator Naver, which does not display places within North Korea in any detail. Naver Map users are unable to access the exact location of specific facilities, such as hospitals or universities, and can only see big geographical features, such as mountains and bridges.

Naver Map has been developed based on OpenStreetMap, a free editable global map often described as the "Wikipedia of maps," which started in Britain in 2004.

Kakao, on the other hand, utilizes other geographic data, including that provided by the state-backed National Geographic Information Institute, according to the messenger app operator.

The two companies said they have limited users from searching such locations in the North, but they could be viewed if users manually pan the map to the North Korean region.

Yonhap