Pokemon Go arrives in South Korea six months late due to security fears

Held back over national security fears connected to Google Maps, Pokemon Go has arrived in South Korea ... six months after it was released elsewhere in the world.

Nintendo's immensely popular augmented-reality game relies on Google Maps to work, a serious problem for South Korean gamers as in large parts of South Korea those functions are limited by the government.

The limitations are in place because the country is still technically at war with North Korea.

Until now, one of the few places it has been possible to play the game was in Sokcho, a city close to the border with North Korea which is not classified as South Korean territory in Google Maps data.

Pokemon Go's producers did not specify how they had managed to work around the Google Maps challenge.

"We used various publicly accessible data sources," said Dennis Hwang, art director of Niantic Inc, which jointly developed the game with Nintendo.

Around the world the game has seen crowds of people gathering in parks and other public places trying to capture monsters.

There has been no sudden buzz of activity reported in Seoul, but temperatures in the South Korean capital at this time of year are below freezing.

South Korea is the world's fourth-biggest gaming market after China, the United States and Japan, according to Amsterdam-based research firm Newzoo.