Hwang Woo-suk appears to lose South Korean citizenship after UAE move
A justice ministry gazette lists Hwang as having lost citizenship after gaining UAE nationality in April, though officials gave few details.
Hwang Woo-suk, whose name is tied to a major stem cell fraud case, appears to have lost his South Korean citizenship after taking up United Arab Emirates nationality, the national news agency Yonhap reported on Monday.
His name appeared on a list of people who lost citizenship in an electronic gazette issued on Aug. 13 by the immigration office of the justice ministry in Cheongju.
The notice said Hwang, who has recently worked in the UAE, obtained the new nationality on April 9, and the listed birth year and hometown match his own.
Under South Korean law, citizens who voluntarily take on another nationality lose their South Korean citizenship automatically.
A justice ministry official declined to provide details beyond what appeared in the gazette.
Hwang remains a divisive figure in South Korea after an investigation in 2005 found he had used falsified data in a research paper claiming he had produced the world's first cloned human embryo.
Seoul National University dismissed him in 2006, and he challenged the decision in court before losing the case in 2015.
The government stripped him of the country's top science and technology award earlier this year, more than two decades after he received it in 2004.
Before the scandal, Hwang had been hailed as a national hero for his work in animal cloning and stem cell research.
He now serves as chief executive of UAE BIOTECH Research Center, which focuses on animal cloning, genetic engineering and stem cell research, the centre's website states.
