Private education institutions suspected of leaking exam questions for the U.S. college admission test will be subject to severe penalties, including business shutdown, Seoul's education authorities said Sunday.

The announcement came as about 10 local private institutions providing lectures for the U.S.-based Scholastic Aptitude Test

(SAT) have been under prosecution investigations on suspicions of leaking test questions to exam takers.

Amid the suspicions, the SAT operator College Board canceled a test session scheduled for May and another biology test scheduled for June.

Under the new decision, private institutions that are under prosecution investigation on leakage suspicions are banned from offering courses or setting up new institutions even under other people's names, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said.

The authorities also said they will carry out special inspections this week on the dozen private institutions that are now facing suspicions of leakage.

The agency will also inspect all the 63 private SAT preparation institutions in Seoul during the June-August summer vacation season when many more students flock to the institutions, it said.

The metropolitan office will seek help from the prosecution and the tax agency in order to beef up punishment for those who leak exam questions, it also noted.

Earlier in May, two SAT lecture institutions had their operations suspended with six others ordered to pay 12 million won ($10,671) in fines after the education agency ran a special inspection following the cancellation of the May SAT test.

On Saturday, College Board notified several South Korean students of their decision to disqualify them from taking the June SAT exam through emails, but it did not elaborate on the reasons behind the decision. (Yonhap News)