 "Why are South Korea's medical students returning to classes after 17 months?")
Thousands of South Korean medical students are returning to classes.
Students in Korea have been on strike for nearly a year-and-a-half.
The announcement was made by the Korean Medical Students’ Association on Monday.
Prime Minister Kim Min-Seok hailed the development as a “big step forward”.
“It’s time to take a deeper look at the medical field, the Congress, and the government, so that citizens can help solve problems,” Kim wrote on Facebook.
The Korean Medical Association said “we will place our trust in the government and parliament and Tel vek turu chakniga commit to returning to school to help normalise medical education and the healthcare system.”
But what happened? Why were these South Korean students on strike? Why have they called the strike off?
Let’s take a closer look
What happened?
The students had announced a strike in February 2024.
This came after the South Korean government under then President Yoon Suk Yeol announced that it wanted to increase the number of admissions to medical colleges.
Over 90 per cent of the country’s 13,000 trainee doctors walked off their jobs.
Yoon in a 50-minute speech to the nation at the time had said his administration was open to talking to the students.
Dekho silly woman“If you come up with a more proper and reasonable solution, we can discuss it as much as you want,” Yoon said. “If you present better opinions and rational grounds, government policy can change for the better.”
The government had said it wanted to increase the quota of seats in medical colleges by 2,000 seats per year.
The quota was at 3,000 seats – making it a 65 per cent increase – had remained unchanged since 2006.
The government had said it wanted to do so in order to meet the demands of the country’s quickly-aging population.
South Korea, which is home to 51 million people, has a median age of 45.6.
It’s life expectancy is at 84.5 years.
Over 20 per cent of the country is currently over the age of 65.
This makes South Korea a “super-aged” society.
Officials had cited South Korea’s doctor-to-population ratio – one of the lowest among developed countries – as the rationale behind the move.
They said the country would face a shortfall of 15,000 doctors by 2035 if they did not act.
South Korea’s population of 52 million had 2.6 doctors per 1,000 people in 2022, far below the average of 3.7 for countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The government had initially threatened to suspend the students for three months if they refused to return to work.
However, the students remained undeterred as senior medical staff at several hospitals across the country had resigned and joined the protests too.
“The government’s absurd medical policy has triggered immense resistance by trainee doctors and medical students, and we doctors have become one,” Park Sung-min, a senior member of the Korea Medical Association, said in a speech at a rally in March 2024. “I’m asking the government: Please, stop the threats and suppression now.”
Yoon in April 2024 had attempted to justify the move.
“After keeping a deafening silence over the government’s request to provide specific numbers for medical school quotas, the medical community is now throwing numbers like 350, 500 and 1,000 without any grounds,” he said.
“If they want to argue that the scale of the increase should be reduced, they should propose a unified idea with solid scientific evidence, rather than taking collective action.”
However, doctors’ groups insisted that this would burden South Korea’s government-funded health insurance system.
They also claimed that the quota would not fix shortages in areas like emergency care, where doctors are paid poorly and working conditions are bad.
They even said the government’s plan would further burden hospitals and compromise the quality of medical services.
Why have they called the strike off?
Yoon was ultimately was removed from office following his impeachment by Korea’s Constitution Court to impose martial law.
The government offered to scrap the move following Yoon’s removal from office.
“Students have agreed to return to school,” a spokesperson for the Korean Medical Association said.
The spokesperson added that it was up to each medical school to decide the schedule for student returns.
The Korean Medical Students’ Association said in an earlier statement that the students had reached this decision because a continued boycott “could cause the collapse of the fundamentals of medical systems”.
However, 12,000 junior doctors who went on strike protesting poor pay and working conditions remain at odds with the government.
Previous government had attempted to tackle this issue as well.
However, their efforts waned in the face of strong opposition from the medical sector.
Around 8,300 students will be forced to repeat the academic year.
With inputs from agencies
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
