Access to Naver, a South Korean online platform, has been disrupted in China for several days. The disruption arose following South Korea’s participation in the G7 Summit in Japan, prompting speculation from some lawmakers that it may be related to tensions in South Korea-China relations. Democratic Party (DP) lawmaker Park Byung-seok raised the issue in a National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee meeting, stressing the need to establish whether the disruption was merely a technical glitch or an act of interference by the Chinese government. Foreign Minister Park Jin acknowledged the situation, assuring that they are working with China to rectify the issue.

China’s Great Firewall restricts access to foreign internet and IP addresses, affecting numerous global platforms such as Google, YouTube and Twitter, and South Korean services like Daum and KakaoTalk. While Naver faced a similar issue with certain services in 2018, the current disruption is more significant, with a majority of its services, including search, email and news, being inaccessible.