Thousands of Korean doctors face license suspensions as Seoul moves to prosecute strike leaders

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Thousands of striking junior doctors in South Korea faced proceedings to suspend their medical licenses Tuesday, while authorities pushed for police investigations into leaders of the walkouts that have disrupted hospital operations.

Nearly 9,000 of South Korea’s 13,000 medical interns and residents have been refusing to work for the past two weeks to protest a government plan to enroll thousands more students in the country’s medical schools in coming years. The government ordered them to return to work by Feb. 29, citing a threat to public health, but most have defied the threats of license suspensions and prosecutions.

Officials say South Korea must add more doctors to deal with a fast-aging population and plan to raise yearly medical school enrollment by 2,000 from the current 3,058, starting next year. But many doctors say universities aren’t ready to deal with that abrupt increase in the number of students and that the country’s overall medical service would eventually be hurt.

On Monday, the Health Ministry sent officials to hospitals to confirm the absence of the striking doctors, in order to begin administrative steps to suspend their licenses. So far, the government has formally confirmed the absence of more than 7,000 strikers. On Tuesday, officials continued on-site inspections of hospitals and began sending notices to some strikers about license suspension proceedings, according to the Health Ministry.