South Korea's industry ministry has temporarily blocked employee access to Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek due to security concerns, a ministry official said on Wednesday, as the government urges caution on generative AI services.

South Korea’s defence ministry has blocked access to the DeepSeek AI tool on military computers due to security concerns. This move adds South Korea to the growing list of countries and companies restricting access to the Chinese AI tool.

South Korea, along with countries such as France and Italy, have asked questions about DeepSeek's data practices, submitting a written request for information about how the company handles user information.