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Hwang Woo-Suk Collaborator's Post Raises Ire

A collaborator of disgraced stem-cell researcher Hwang Woo-Suk has been tapped to lead a South Korean science center, leading scientists there to protest, Agence France Presse reports.

Park Ki-Young was appointed this week to run the Science, Technology and Innovation Office at the Ministry of Science, the Korea Herald says. There, AFP adds, Park would oversee the allocation of government funds for research projects.

But a group of some 240 young researchers has called on President Moon Jae-In to rescind the appointment. "Her name is far from innovation. The name is rather a nightmare to science and technology workers," the group says in a statement.

Park was a co-author with Hwang on his research papers that claimed to have developed stem cell lines from cloned human embryos, work that was later found to be fraudulent. AFP adds that when Park served as a presidential aide, she helped support Hwang's work with government funds. She resigned after being accused of covering up research and ethical flaws in the work, it adds.

"Putting Park, involved in the unprecedented scandal, in the post is like allowing a cat to take care of fish," says opposition party policy chief Lee Yong-ho, according to the Korea Herald.

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