» Choi Si-jung,　the chairman of Korea Communications Commission, listens to lawmakers questions related to the real name verification system at the National Assembly, April 17.

Google discussed its decision of noncompliance with South Korea’s real name verification system in a human rights forum on May 6.

One Google Korea official said on Wednesday that any decision to participate in the real-name system was a core matter that would need to be decided at the level of Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. He said that no matter how clear the Korean government makes its position, this was not an issue up for negotiation. Several experts think that Google’s corporate mission as a global service provider makes it difficult to accept the Korean government’s request.

With the Korean government left having no particular cards to play, Google shows signs it will continue to deal with the Korean YouTube issue at the level of human rights. Nicole Wong, a Google legal advisor who handles questions concerning freedom of expression at the company, discussed the problems facing YouTube in South Korea at a conference hosted by the Human Rights Center of the University of California, Berkeley on Monday. She said because Google views YouTube as a socially and politically important platform, it considered facilitating Internet anonymity as fundamental in the exercise of freedom of expression. She said the company has conveyed to the South Korean government its opposition to the real-name verification system. In response to a question of whether the South Korean government could demand that Google do to YouTube’s main site what it did to YouTube Korea’s site or be blocked, she hinted that Google had in mind the possibility of pulling out of South Korea on its own accord.

Following the Chairman of the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), Choi Si-joong’s mention at the National Assembly on April 15 that he was considering legal action against Google, the commission has since been in contact with Google Korea, but has failed to extract any changes in direction from the company. Moreover, despite threats of legal action, Google’s circumvention of the real-name system through their voluntary removal of its user upload functions on YouTube Korea is not legally actionable. Hwang Cheol-jeung, KCC’s network policy director said on Wednesday that for now, the government has conveyed its opinion to Google and is carefully watching the company’s attitude. The commission said it could not apply local laws when either a company’s servers or operators are located outside of South Korea.

The Cheong Wa Dae (the presidential office in South Korea or Blue House) meanwhile, uploaded President Lee Myung-bak’s radio and Internet addresses to Youtube.com on both April 20 and May 4 by changing the country preference, even after YouTube Korea disabled user upload functions.

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