South Korean cloning researcher Hwang Woo-suk has been dismissed from Seoul National University for his role in falsifying results. Woo-suk was suspended by the university in February.

University directors met last week and decided to sack Woo-suk and another professor involved the cloning research. Six other professors have been suspended or had wages docked for between one and three months.

Hwang accepted responsibility in December. South Korean researchers gained world attention in August last year when they claimed to have sucessfully cloned an Afghan dog. He was accused of falsifying data and pressuring female staff to donate eggs.

He apologised in January, saying: "My life will be spent undoing my wrongdoing. I can't ever repay the debt fully until I die."

The university president apologised for embarrasing the country. But he has some supporters - in early February a man set himself on fire in support of the professor.

Woo-suk has also been expelled from the Korean Society for Molecular and Cellular Biology.

More from Xihuanet here. and the Korea Times here.

®