South Korea suspends the licenses of 2 senior doctors in first punitive steps over doctors’ walkouts

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean authorities have suspended the licenses of two senior doctors for allegedly inciting the weekslong walkouts by thousands of medical interns and residents that have disrupted hospital operations, one of the doctors said Monday.

The suspensions are the government’s first punitive steps against physicians after doctors-in-training walked off the job last month to protest the government’s plan to sharply increase medical school admissions.

Officials say the recruitment plan is aimed at adding more doctors to prepare for South Korea’s rapidly aging population in a country whose doctor-to-population ratio is one of the lowest in the developed world. But doctors say that schools can’t handle an abrupt, steep increase in students, and that it would ultimately undermine the country’s medical services.

In early March, the government began taking steps to suspend the licenses of striking junior doctors after they refused its orders to return to work by the end of February. Police are separately investigating five senior members of the Korean Medical Association, which represents doctors in South Korea, for allegedly inciting and abetting the strikes.

Park Myung-Ha, one of the five members, said he received a government-sent letter saying that his license will be suspended for three months from April 15. Park, who works for the KMA’s emergency committee, said committee leader Kim Taek-woo was also given a three-month suspension.

The Health Ministry said it wouldn’t confirm any reported administrative steps imposed on individual doctors.

“My fellow doctors and I are really angered and appalled by the government’s measure,” Park told The Associated Press.

Park accused the government of attempting to