Security zone in South Korea

Caution: mapping military installations is welcomed in OpenStreetMap, but may be prohibited by local law. Before mapping potentially sensitive sites such as these, please be aware of Section I b of the OSMF Terms of Use: "You are responsible for your own actions [...] OSMF generally cannot offer any protection, guarantee, immunity or indemnification."

This document is intended to provide guidance on the unauthorized deletion of South Korean security facilities, security zones, military facilities, and military areas in OpenStreetMap.

OpenStreetMap generally does not adhere to specific national security interests regarding mapping. If a building is visible in aerial imagery, it can be mapped regardless of whether it is located in a security zone or not.

Deleting such buildings can be considered an act of vandalism in OpenStreetMap. If you need an OpenStreetMap map with military facilities hidden, please check the South Korea OpenStreetMap map tiles without military facilities. - How to use

Mapping in South Korean Security Zones

The satellite imagery provided in OpenStreetMap has low resolution and significant distortion, making its accuracy too low to hold value as a high-precision map. Therefore, conventional mapping based on the satellite imagery provided in OpenStreetMap is highly unlikely to violate South Korean laws.

For this reason, please do not delete national security or military facilities exposed on OpenStreetMap.

However, while editing features simply visible on satellite maps is generally unlikely to breach South Korean law, entering classified security details that cannot be discerned from satellite imagery—especially when done by a South Korean national or from within South Korea—may be a violation of the law.

For more detailed information, please refer to "Mapping South Korea: Legal and Security Considerations".

For OpenStreetMap to be served in a given country, it must comply with that country's laws. Therefore, in the case of South Korea, we are preparing South Korea OpenStreetMap map tiles without military facilities as an alternative that does not go against South Korean legislation.

To ensure that military and security facilities can be masked on maps served within South Korea, we highly recommend adding the landuse=military tag to the relevant areas, and the access=no or access=private tags to the facilities themselves when mapping South Korean military and security installations.

See also

• Ground truth
• Don't remove objects that you don't need or like
• Mapping South Korea: Legal and Security Considerations
• Key:military
• Russian–Ukrainian war

Copyright notice

The original content is from changeset 46159124, licensed under WTFPL:

"Hello, in this changeset you deleted y couple of buildings and your comment says that you deleted them because they are in a security area. However, OSM does not generally respect specific national security interests with regards to mapping. If a building is visible on aerial imagery, then it may be mapped in OSM, no matter whether it is in a security area or not. Deleting such a building, as you have done here, can be interpreted as an act of vandalism on OSM. Please don't do that."