A Pokemon GO Map Glitch Put a Korean Town in North Korea

When Pokemon GO launched in July 2016, it was not released in South Korea, so no Pokemon appeared there. But the game’s map, inherited from Niantic’s earlier game Ingress, placed the beach town of Sokcho, near the North Korean border, inside its North Korea region, so the game worked there. Players drove in overnight, express buses from Seoul to Sokcho went from 36 to 72 trips a day, hotel bookings quadrupled, and the city posted maps of its free Wi-Fi. Mayor Lee Byung-seon even filmed himself catching a Pokemon in his office, in a game that had not launched in his country.