The foreign ministry is trying to confirm media reports saying that access to the South Korean portal site Naver is blocked in China.

Spokesperson Lim Soo-suk said the ministry is aware of the matter in a Tuesday briefing while the issue is not known to have been addressed during Monday's director-level diplomatic talks with Beijing held in Seoul.

China claims it does not know about the situation. Foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Tuesday there is no concrete information and advised reporters to forward questions to the relevant Chinese authority.

The Chinese foreign ministry often avoids answering questions on sensitive matters by saying they are unaware or the issue is not a diplomatic affair.

It's been reported in recent days all across China including Beijing and Shanghai that Naver can't be accessed or the website is loaded very slowly. This has prompted many to download virtual private network service or VPN to gain proper access to Naver.

Naver functions such as Naver Cafe and Blog have been blocked in China since October 2018 but its search and mail services could still be used.  

Some pundits note the timing of the latest incident as it's happening on the heels of the Group of Seven summit which South Korea also took part in.