The National Primate Research Center is seeking to clone a monkey.

An official of the center which is under the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology said, however, that it's difficult to disclose technical details.

Dogs, sheep and cats have been cloned worldwide but cloning of a monkey, the closest animals to humans genetically, has yet to succeed.

The center, which opened in November, raises a hundred rhesus monkeys while conducting preclinical studies and experiments on terminal diseases and regenerative medicine via stem cell research and primate organ transplants.