The United States has asked South Korea not to use products made by Chinese tech firms such as Huawei.

South Korea responded that it cannot interfere in private companies' use of certain brands, but Seoul and Washington will continue talks to defuse security concerns over 5G technology.

Vice Foreign Minister Lee Tae-ho and U.S. Undersecretary of State for economic growth, energy and the environment Keith Krach held the Korea-U.S. Senior Economic Dialogue via teleconference on Wednesday.

According to Seoul's foreign ministry, the two sides discussed issues related to economic security including the Clean Network initiative pushed by Washington. 

Clean Network is a U.S. policy push to exclude products by Chinese companies, such as Huawei and ZTE, which the U.S. finds unreliable, from such areas as 5G networks, mobile apps, undersea cables and cloud computing.

Washington is soliciting the participation of other countries as well.

The State Department has posted on its website a list of nations that have decided to boycott Huawei and described South Korea's SKT and KT as "clean carriers" for deciding to halt trade with the Chinese company.