Scientist Defends Cloning Claim

SEOUL —  Disgraced scientist Hwang Woo Suk claimed today that he possessed the technology to create human embryonic clones and hinted broadly that junior researchers and jealous colleagues were responsible for his downfall.

The spirited defense came as a surprise amid a barrage of evidence that the 53-year-old scientist had fabricated the findings in two landmark papers in which he claimed to have created human embryo clones.

Nonetheless, Hwang said he would take full responsibility as the chief scientist and lead author of the disputed papers.

“I feel so miserable it is difficult even to say sorry,” Hwang said at a nationally televised news conference. “I will be repenting for this for the rest of my life.”

Just hours earlier, South Korean authorities reportedly raided Hwang’s home and offices as part of a criminal investigation into whether his alleged fabrications constituted a crime, because public funds were used.

Emerging from weeks of seclusion, Hwang looked confident and composed in a suit and tie, with young research students standing behind him in a show of support. He claimed that the evidence of his successful research had been stored at Seoul’s MizMedi Hospital and suggested that researchers there had either lost or switched the evidence.

He attacked by name junior researchers and partners who he said were involved. Hwang also ridiculed Seoul National University’s theory that the embryo created in the 2004 paper was a result of parthenogenesis, a type of asexual reproduction, saying that such an embryo would be even harder to create.

Once among the country’s national heroes, Hwang has offered to resign from Seoul National University and is expected to be stripped of his pension as well.