SNU Academics Seek Verification of Hwang Research MBC Union Unrepentant Over Hwang Expose Hwang Team Pre-Empts SNU Bid to Verify Research Cloning Pioneer Visits Lab From Hospital Top Geneticists Call on Hwang to Help Confirm Findings Hwang Defends Stem Cell Research U.S. Scientist Withdraws Name From Hwang Paper Hwang Scandal Splashed Across Global Front Pages SNU Sets Up Panel to Check Hwang Research What Went Wrong in the Hwang Affair? Researcher Says Hwang Stem Cell Research Accurate Hwang Grilled as SNU Inquiry Gets Under Way Fresh Mixup Casts Doubt on Cloning Pioneer’s Research Widening SNU Probe Seals Off Hwang’s Lab Hwang Achievements Succumb to Domino Effect SNU Panel 'Close' to Finding if Hwang's Stem Cells Exist Schatten Requested US$200,000 for 'Effort' MBC Producer, Hospital Chief Grilled in Hwang Probe

Hwang told the Chosun Ilbo by phone from his hospital bed he had urged Roh earlier in the day “to refrain from rash actions” since the geneticist and his team were investigating the matter. Asked whether the stem cells exist, Hwang said, “We are checking now.”

A scandal that started with ethical lapses in the egg procurement process has now spread to the very heart of the groundbreaking stem cell research Hwang and his team have been conducting. If Roh’s statement turns out to be true, it would deal a fatal blow to the Korean bioengineering world’s credibility, to say nothing of Hwang’s stellar reputation.

Two people watch an MBC broadcast as Roh Sung-il, a close associate of cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-suk and the chief of MizMedi Hospital, says it seems stem cells Hwang claims to have cloned very likely do not exist.

Roh quoted Hwang as saying he succeeded in producing six cloned embryonic stem cells but four of them were destroyed. “If Hwang says he ‘has to check’ whether the two surviving cells are in fact frozen embryonic cells stored at MizMedi Hospital or not, then I seriously doubt the existence of the cloned stem cells,” Roh said. Critics have charged that the cells pictured with Hwang’s article were in fact incubated at MizMedi Hospital in 2002.

Roh said Hwang appeared to implicitly confirm claims from scientists that both the pictures and DNA fingerprints were fabricated. “I now think the pictures and the DNA are fake too,” he said.

Choeng Wa Dae said President Roh Moo-hyun had been briefed about the news and recommended waiting to see how the situation develops.

Meanwhile, MBC aired a follow-up investigative program on the scandal. In “Special report: Why PD Diary Demanded Verification,” broadcast at 10 p.m. Thursday, the broadcaster defended itself against a public outcry that greeted its original revelations by the now-scrapped “PD Diary” program. MBC broadcast the interview with Roh during its time “News Desk.”

(englishnews@chosun.com )