South Korea's president meets leader of doctors' strike as he seeks to end their walkouts
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South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol met the leader of a strike by thousands of doctors on Thursday and said that the government is open to talks about its contentious push to sharply increase medical school admissions. The meeting was the first of its kind since more than 90% of the country’s 13,000 trainee doctors walked off the job in February, disrupting hospital operations. Yoon defended his plan to recruit 2,000 more medical students each year, but said his government remains open to talks if doctors come up with a unified proposal. Yoon met Park Dan, head of an emergency committee for the Korea Intern Resident Association, for more than two hours, during which “the president said he would respect the position of trainee doctors in the event of talks with the medical circle on medical reform issues including an increase of doctors,” according to Yoon’s office. The government did not say whether there are immediate plans for talks with the doctors or if Yoon is willing to lower the size of his proposed medical school admission increase. The strikers have demanded the government withdraw the 2,000-student admission increase plan. Public surveys show that a majority of ordinary South Koreans support Yoon’s plan. The striking doctors face license suspensions because they missed a government-set deadline to return to work by the end of February.
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