The dismissal of disgraced stem cell researcher Hwang Woo-suk by Seoul National University is legal, the top court ruled Wednesday, putting the final nail in the coffin of a scandal that rattled the nation in the late 2000s.

In articles published in the journal Science between 2004 and 2005, Hwang claimed to have succeeded at creating the world's first cloned human embryo, a breakthrough extolled by the nation and the scientific community.

Hwang, however, did not provide any verifiable data to back up his claims, and an internal probe by the nation's top university later discovered he had fabricated his results.

In 2006, SNU stripped the scientist of his position as a professor, a dismissal Hwang has argued is unjust.

Wednesday's ruling upheld two lower courts' rulings, both of which had sided with SNU. (Yonhap)