What’s next for South Korean doctors who face license suspensions because of walkouts

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s government is pressing ahead with its vow to suspend the licenses of thousands of junior doctors who ignore its repeated demands to end their collective walkouts.

Nearly 9,000 out of the country’s 13,000 medical interns and residents have been refusing to work for about two weeks to protest a government plan to increase South Korea’s medical school admission quota by about two thirds.

Here are some questions and answers about what’s next in the strike:

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HOW DOES THE SUSPENSION WORK?

After their walkouts caused hundreds of surgeries and other treatments to be canceled, the government ordered the junior doctors to return to work by Feb. 29 or face license suspensions and possible legal charges. Most of them missed the deadline.

On Monday, the government dispatched officials to about 50 hospitals to formally confirm the absence of striking doctors, before informing them of their license suspensions and giving them a chance to respond.

Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo said the doctors face a minimum three-month suspension. Suspension records will leave them facing more than one year of delay in getting licenses for specialists and further barriers in landing jobs, Park said.

Park suggested it would take weeks to complete procedures for suspending licenses. Once it’s done, some striking doctors will likely respond with legal action.

Hyeondeok Choi, partner at the law firm Daeryun that specializes in medical law, said it would be “impossible” for the government to suspend the licenses of all the 9,000 doctors. He said the government would likely target less than 100 of the leading strikers.

The Korea Medical Association, which represents 140,000 doctors in South Korea, said it supports