By Alex Jensen
SEOUL
A former aide to the South Korean president was charged with leaking confidential information Monday, local media reported.
Cho Eung-cheon, who was secretary to President Park Geun-hye before resigning last month, was indicted over a document claiming another former Park aide, Jeong Yun-hoe, had wielded undue influence within the government despite holding no official post, Yonghap news agency said.
Prosecutors said the document - also purporting to show that Jeong, who worked for Park before her election in February 2013, had tried to oust and replace her chief of staff - was fabricated by a senior police officer who had worked under Cho in the presidential office.
The officer, Superintendent Park Kwan-cheon, has been detained on charges of leaking confidential information, violating the law governing presidential documents, hiding official documents and making false accusations, investigators at the Seoul District Prosecutors' Office said.
The convoluted scandal had threatened to engulf the Park administration as it prepared for a third year of government.
Following months of criticism over the handling of April's Sewol ferry disaster, the government appeared to have been critically damaged by claims of Jeong’s improper influence in the presidential Blue House.
In November, the Segye Ilbo newspaper leaked details of the document and the subsequent furore saw many analysts writing off the government as a lame duck administration for its remaining three-year tenure.
Monday's televised announcement that the document was a fake brought an abrupt shift as the ruling party rushed to vindicate Park.
"We cannot help but feel anger and even despondency at the fact that chaos was brought about in state affairs at the hands of a ghost that wasn't real," Saenuri Party spokesman Park Dae-chul said at a press briefing.
The main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy spokesman Yoo Ki-hong said the prosecutors’ declaration would be "turned upside down" by an independent investigation.
In an initial report, the prosecutors said the forged document was passed to Park Ji-man, the president’s younger brother, under Cho’s orders. The document also contained a claim that Jeong had hired a man to follow Park Ji-man, who heads EG Corporation.
