The gender ministry said Monday it will begin a pilot service this week that allows citizens to search where convicted sex offenders live using internet portal operator Naver Corp.'s map app.

The pilot service, which uses the Naver map to display actual home addresses of sex offenders listed in the government's registry system (www.sexoffender.go.kr), will run from Tuesday to the end of this month before the official launch, according to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

The service was organized to improve latencies in updates of VWorld, a map service by the land ministry currently used to provide address information of registered sex criminals.

The Naver map is updated more frequently than VWorld, according to the gender ministry.

"We will provide more accurate address information (on convicted sexual offenders) through Naver map and work to protect children from being exposed to sex crime," Hwang Yun-jeong, a senior official at the gender ministry, said.

South Korea's sex offender registry system discloses personal information of convicted sex offenders whose identity disclosure was ordered by a court, including name, address, and age. (Yonhap)