Cho Kuk, a progressive law professor, has been cleared of suspicions of plagiarism that were raised by conservative activists, according to his school.

Seoul National University announced Tuesday that its research ethics committee concluded there is lack of evidence to support the allegations against Cho.

Cho has been under investigation by the university since February after conservative columnist Byun Hee-jae filed a claim that Cho plagiarized a research paper published in 2008 from one of his previously published papers.

The committee said although Cho used words without clearly acknowledging the source in his 2008 paper’s English abstract, it did not violate the academic code of conduct, according to the university.

By Oh Kyu-wook (596story@heraldcorp.com)