SEOUL — South Korea's defense and trade ministries said Thursday they had blocked DeepSeek's access to work computers, following a request from the country's data watchdog for the Chinese AI startup to clarify how it manages user information.

DeepSeek launched its R1 chatbot last month, claiming it matches the capacity of artificial intelligence pace-setters in the United States for a fraction of the investment.

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.

Seoul's defense ministry said Thursday it had blocked DeepSeek from military computers connected to the internet, while the trade ministry said that access had been temporarily restricted on all PCs within the agency.

"Blocking measures for DeepSeek have been implemented specifically for military work-related PCs with Internet," a ministry official told AFP.

The trade ministry said DeepSeek has not responded to the data watchdog's inquiry.

"We have temporarily blocked DeepSeek since it has not responded to The Personal Information Protection Commission's inquiry," a trade ministry official told AFP.

Last week, Italy launched an investigation into DeepSeek's R1 model and blocked it from processing Italian users' data.

Australia has also banned DeepSeek from all government devices on the advice of security agencies.

DeepSeek has said it used less-advanced H800 chips -- permitted for sale to China until 2023 under US export controls -- to power its large learning model.

South Korean chip giants Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are key suppliers of advanced chips used in AI servers.