South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol And Internship Doctor Representative Planned To Meet Today

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol. (Wikimedia Commons/KOCIS Official/Kang Min Seok)

JAKARTA - The head of the group representing the intern who was on strike in protest against the government's medical reform plan said he was scheduled to meet South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol this Thursday.

Park Dan, chairman of the emergency committee at the Korea Intern Resident Association (KIRA), said in an internal notice he would meet with President Yoon on Thursday ahead of next week's parliamentary elections.

Park did not specify where he would meet President Yoon, but said the meeting was "appropriate to try out because we were able to convey the attitude of the training participants to President Yoon ahead of the April 10 general election," the Korea Times reported March 4.

Park also said he would ask President Yoon to cancel plans to increase the number of medical students.

About 12,000 junior doctors have been strike in the form of mass resignations since February 20, in protest against plans to increase 2,000 admissions to medical schools.

Earlier this week, President Yoon's Office said it was open to holding talks with junior doctors, but the prospect of a breakthrough over this deadlock remains uncertain, as the government shows no sign of reducing the number of increases in the quota for medical school admissions.

Instead of reducing, the government has allocated revenue quotas to universities.

In his national address on Monday, President Yoon asked doctors to create an "integrated proposal" regarding increasing admissions to appropriate medical schools, saying the government would be open to holding talks even though they believed the 2,000 increase was the minimum number.

It is known that this reform plan itself is a hot issue in next week's parliamentary elections, in which the ruling People's Power Party aims to regain the majority in the National Assembly.