Apple has significantly increased the time it provides location information when emergency calls are made in South Korea, extending it to 30 minutes from 5 minutes.

The Korea Communications Commission said on Tuesday that Apple will extend the emergency-rescue location information it provides when iPhone users connect to emergency calls to 112 and 119 to 30 minutes from 5 minutes, during a call or for the period after a call ends. Apple recently applied the function through an iPhone software update.

Emergency response agencies including the National Fire Agency and the National Police Agency have steadily raised the need to extend iPhone location-sharing time to identify the exact location of people needing rescue quickly. They said a short sharing period makes it difficult for rescue teams to track real-time location changes even after reaching the initial reported location.

The commission has operated an emergency-rescue location information quality consultative body since last year, involving Apple, the National Police Agency, the National Fire Agency and the Korea Internet & Security Agency, and has discussed measures to extend the location-sharing time.

Commission Chairman Jong-cheol Kim (김종철) said, "We welcome Apple's decision, and we will strengthen cooperation with relevant institutions including global operators on measures to improve the quality of emergency-rescue location information and eliminate blind spots to protect the lives and safety of the public."