SEOUL — Like many scandals, this one started with an anonymous tip and a cloak-and-dagger meeting in the dead of night.
Deep Throat was a South Korean doctor in his early 30s known as "Mr. K." Last summer, he sent an e-mail to an investigative television program complaining that his former boss had fabricated groundbreaking results of human embryonic cloning. After some negotiations, he arranged to meet with the show's producer after working hours at the doctor's hospital. They found an empty office, locked the door behind them, and lowered their voices.
The outcome was anything but a whisper. The ensuing scandal has resounded around the world and may go down as one of the greatest science hoaxes of all time. Mr. K's former boss, acclaimed scientist Hwang Woo Suk, is in disgrace and has been fired by Seoul National University. South Korea's presidential advisor on science has resigned, and a massive criminal investigation is underway.
But life has not been so grand for those who broke the story, either.
Instead of plaudits for his courage, Mr. K had to resign from the hospital. He is unemployed.
South Korea's MBC Television, which broke the story on the investigative program "PD Notebook," was beset by protests from viewers and advertisers outraged by the affront to a national hero. The broadcaster's stock price crashed, and the program was taken off the air for two weeks.
It was nasty stuff. Enraged Hwang supporters distributed a photograph on the Internet of the program's producer, Han Hak Soo, his wife and their 4-year-old child.
"Let's kill those three!" read one message accompanying the photograph.
Concerned, MBC's management tried to send him to Europe for a three-month training program to place him out of harm's way. Then, when Han was preparing to leave, he was banned from leaving the country because of a lawsuit filed against him.
"It was as though we had brought down a sacred cow in South Korea, and people were really angry," said Choi Seung Ho, an MBC executive producer.
The behind-the-scenes story of how the cloning fraud came to light tells a lot about South Korea today. On the positive side, Korean scientists, doctors and journalists cared enough about the truth to be willing to stand up to the establishment.
"This is a remarkable event in the democratization of our society. Not long ago it would have been unimaginable for a junior researcher to disobey their seniors like this," said Kim Chang Kyu, a prominent Seoul gynecologist and advocate for patients' rights.
