Cheong Wa Dae denied a newspaper report Monday that presidential chief of staff Im Jong-seok's visit to the United Arab Emirates earlier this month was to calm complaints and concerns about Seoul's nuclear phase-out policy negatively affecting a nuclear power plant project in the UAE.

The Chosun Ilbo newspaper carried the report, citing a photo of Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, chairman of the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation's Board of Directors, attending a meeting between Im and UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan on Dec. 10.

Al Mubarak is in charge of the Barakah nuclear power plant that South Korea is building under a 2009 contract. The report also claimed that Al Mubarak asked Im whether the South can properly handle the project when it's pursuing a nuclear phase-out policy, and Im assured him that there will be no problem.

"As the nuclear power plant project has been going smoothly, there was no mention" of the project during the meeting between Im and the crown prince, Cheong Wa Dae said in a notice sent to members of the press corps.

The presidential office also said that Al Mubarak attended the meeting in his capacity as chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Affairs Authority, not as chairman of the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation's Board of Directors.

It also rejected claims as groundless that Al Mubarak had planned to visit South Korea to file a complaint, but the South's government effectively blocked the trip with a counterproposal that a South Korean official would visit the Middle Eastern nation.

The office said it asked the newspaper to run a correction story. 

"Chief of staff Im met with the UAE crown prince to strengthen the partnership for national projects of the two countries from a broad framework," a presidential official told reporters. "No specific projects, such as the nuclear power plant project, were mentioned."

At the time of Im's trip, Cheong Wa Dae said that he was traveling to the UAE and Lebanon as a special presidential envoy to visit South Korean troops deployed in the countries.

Asked why Im visited the troops again only a month after Defense Minister Song Young-moo visited them, the presidential official said that the two trips are different in their meanings as Im made the visit on behalf of President Moon. (Yonhap)