Park is accused of removing intelligence reports on Chung, once a close aide to President Park Geun-hye, when he was reassigned from the presidential office earlier this year.

Park reported for duty Monday but took off two additional days of vacation citing health issues and a desire to avoid hampering the duties of fellow officers at the Seoul police station to which he was assigned. Park had taken Nov. 27 and 28 off, and remained out of the station over the weekend.

The presidential office has singled him out as responsible for leaking the documents, and news reports have claimed that he removed two boxes full of classified documents.

The documents, the content of which were carried by the local daily Sagye Ilbo, claims that Chung had influenced the president’s personnel decisions.

Park has said he cannot discuss the content of the documents under any circumstances and that he would exercise the right to remain silent on the issue even during questioning by the prosecution.

Park has since denied all allegations against him, and claimed that he has evidence to prove that someone accessed the documents while he was still assigned to the presidential office’s department in charge of civil servants’ discipline.

“Before leaving Cheong Wa Dae, somebody copied all the documents. (I) have evidence,” Park told a local daily. He added that the presidential office is fully aware that he is not responsible for leaking the documents, and claimed that there was likely a “higher-up” who ordered the concerned documents to be copied.

Park also claimed that Cheong Wa Dae downplaying the documents’ content as being no more than a collection of rumors was an attempt at undermining Jo Eung-cheon, the former presidential secretary for civil servants’ discipline.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)