S. Korean medical students to end 17-month boycott
South Korean healthcare was plunged into chaos early last year when then-president Yoon Suk Yeol moved to sharply increase medical school admissions, citing an urgent need to boost doctor numbers to meet growing demand in a rapidly ageing society.
The initiative met fierce protest, prompting junior doctors to walk away from hospitals and medical students to boycott their classrooms, with operations cancelled and service provision disrupted nationwide.
The measure was later watered down, and the government eventually offered to scrap it in March this year, after Yoon was impeached over his disastrous declaration of martial law.
"Students have agreed to return to school," said a spokesman for the Korean Medical Association yesterday, adding 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 the students had reached this decision because a continued boycott "could cause the collapse of the fundamentals of medical systems".
Some 8,300 students are expected to return to school, but no specific timeline has been provided.
Prime Minister Kim Min-seok welcomed the decision, calling it a "big step forward" in a Facebook post on Sunday, adding that President Lee Jae Myung was deliberating ways to solve the issue.
In addition to the student boycott, some 12,000 junior doctors went on strike last year — with the vast majority of them still declining to return to work.
The increase in medical school admissions led to a record number of students re-taking the college entrance exam in November in a bid to capitalise on reforms that made it easier to get into coveted majors.
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