Presidential office denounces allegations involving Park's aide

SEOUL, July 19 (Yonhap) -- The presidential office Cheong Wa Dae on Tuesday denounced allegations of murky connections between a senior presidential secretary, a prosecutor and two businessmen who have been involved in high-profile corruption scandals.

The presidential office warned against any "political offensive" that would hurt the government's efforts to tackle a series of economic and security challenges facing the nation.

Local media outlets have reported on the allegations involving Woo Byung-woo, top presidential secretary for civil affairs. Woo called the allegations "utterly groundless," vowing to take legal actions against the media outlets that raised the allegations.

"Amplifying the allegations without legitimate evidence is an irresponsible act and would not be helpful in forging national unity," a senior official at Cheong Wa Dae told reporters.

"I believe they should refrain from waging any unilateral political offensive or making any move to shake the government's management of state affairs, at a time when the president and the government are making all-out efforts to tide over security and economic challenges."

Reports said that Woo served as an attorney to secretly defend Jung Woon-ho, former chief of local cosmetics brand Nature Republic. The disgraced businessman has been detained in a lobbying scandal that allegedly ensnared preeminent figures in the judiciary.

In a press release, Woo said that he had never met Jung before. He called the reports "completely false and fictitious."

Woo, a former prosecutor, briefly worked as a lawyer between 2013 and 2014.

A day earlier, another report said that in 2011, South Korea's leading online game maker Nexon Co. purchased an expensive building in the posh southern district of Seoul, which was owned by the family of Woo's wife.

The report raised the suspicion that Jin Kyung-joon, a senior prosecutor who was arrested in a bribery case, might have played a role as a broker in Nexon's purchase of the building worth 130 billion won (US$113 million).

Jin, known to be close to Woo, is Nexon's founder Kim Jung-ju's friend from college.

Kim is currently under investigation over his alleged involvement in Jin's stock transactions. Nexon allegedly lent some 400 million won to Jin in 2005, helping the prosecutor amass some 12 billion won in profits through stock transactions by 2015.

Woo claims that his wife's family sold the building to Nexon through a "normal" transaction process.

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