South Korea said Thursday it confirmed that Chinese authorities had intentionally blocked services of Kakao and LINE mobile messengers on fears of abuse by terrorist groups. Talks are underway to normalize the services, it said.

“Some of the messenger services in China that spread information linked to terrorist activities were blocked (by the Chinese authority), including Kakao Talk and LINE,” the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said.

“Many terrorist groups in China reportedly spread information on how to make explosives while engaging in propaganda activities through the messengers and video-sharing websites, as well as cloud computing systems,” the ministry said, quoting Chinese authorities.

Other global messengers such as Didi, Talk Box and Vower were also blocked by the authority for the same reasons, it said. (Yonhap)