A South Korea-U.S. joint research team has succeeded in cloning monkey embryos using a technology developed by South Korean scientists.

Professor Hwang Woo-suk, who is credited with the world's first extraction of human stem cells from a cloned embryo, is one of three South Korean scientists who took part in the joint research. The research project has been conducted since October of last year and led by reproductive biologist Gerald Schatten from the University of Pittsburgh.

In an interview from the United States, Professor Hwang said the objective of the research is to bio-engineer an immunodeficient monkey that would be used to test the safety of transplant organs to be developed using sterilized pigs.

The professor at Seoul National University said the joint research has nothing to do with human cloning, citing that in the case of humans, cloned embryos do not grow enough to be implanted in the uterus.

According to Prof. Hwang, the team had succeeded in implanting cloned monkey embryos into female monkeys, but had failed to impregnate them.