South Korea withdraws plans to suspend striking doctors’ licenses

South Korea has decided to withdraw its earlier plan to revoke the licenses of doctors involved in the ongoing strikes, a move that is intended to end the ongoing deadlock in the country’s medical sector.

On Monday, Health Minister Cho Kyoo Hong announced that the government would not enforce license revocation measures against striking doctors, regardless of whether they returned to their hospitals or not.

The strikes involved over 13,000 junior doctors, including junior doctors who walked out of their posts in February to protest against the government’s plan to significantly increase the number of medical students. The walkouts have severely affected the functioning of the university hospitals where these doctors were trained.

(Disclaimer: With contributions from agencies.)