The government has decided to allow research on cloned embryonic somatic stem cells to resume on a limited basis.

The national bioethics deliberating committee reached the decision in a general meeting Friday in a vote that divided the committee.

Only 13 members who were government officials and civic officials from the science sector took part in the written resolution. Twelve of them voted to approve limited stem cell research. But all seven bioethics-related civic members boycotted the vote in opposition.

The committee and the Health and Welfare Ministry have been deliberating the ethics of stem cell research and its technical feasibility following the cloning fraud scandal of disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk.

The committee has been torn between a temporary ban pending further animal testing and basic technology development and a limited allowance under which human eggs used in research would be strictly controlled.