Days after allegations emerged that the chief prosecutor had been hiding a son born from an extramarital affair, the child's mother on Tuesday denied the report and claimed she used the influential official's name to protect her son.

The Chosun Ilbo, the largest-circulation daily, reported on Friday that Prosecutor General Chae Dong-wook met a woman in 1999 and they gave birth to a son in 2002.

Chae, who has a daughter and a wife, denied the report as "groundless" and demanded the daily issue a correction. He said he would take a paternity DNA test if needed.

Amid the tit-for-tat between the conservative newspaper and the top prosecutor, the 54-year-old woman -- only identified her surname Lim -- sent a letter to liberal daily Hankyoreh to deny the allegations raised by the Chosun Ilbo.

"I gave birth to someone's child for personal reasons, and registered his birth without a father," Lim wrote in the letter.

"Although this matter is related to my private life, it has caused irreparable damage to others. So, I have no option but to explain it."

Lim, who had owned a bar in the southern port city of Busan when Chae was serving in the same city, claimed she told her son that his father was the prosecutor in order to protect the boy.

She later moved to Seoul and now operates a restaurant in an affluent region in southern Seoul, which Chae has occasionally visited, according to Hankyoreh.

The Chosun reported it received the same letter from Lim, but it argued her claims are suspicious, as her son and Chae share the same surname and she didn't give any clues to the identity of his biological father. (Yonhap News)