Category: Korea-General Topics

Can anyone think of a strike where people were protesting against the addition of jobs? That is essentially what this is. The government wants more medical school slots to address the shortage of doctors in rural areas and current doctor trainees do not want this:

 A mass walkout by trainee doctors is approaching a deadline set by the government to return to work, as medical services have been crippled with both the government and junior doctors showing little signs of backing down. 

About 9,000 trainee doctors walked off their jobs for the ninth day in a row Wednesday, as the government ordered them to go back to work by Thursday. Unless they return to work, they will face suspension of licenses and even indictment. 

At the center of the dispute is the government’s plan to boost the medical school enrollment quota by 2,000 next year, from the current 3,058. 

On Tuesday, President Yoon Suk Yeol said the plan is a “minimum necessary measure” to address a shortage of doctors and stressed that, “This cannot and should not be a subject for negotiation or compromise.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

How can the operators of this business overlook not securing the carabiner before a bungee jump? Condolences to the deceased friends and family because this is absolutely horrible:

This Yonhap file photo shows Starfield Anseong Mall. (Yonhap)

A woman in her 60s died after falling from a bungee jumping platform at a large shopping mall in Anseong, just south of Seoul, on Monday, police said. 

The victim, whose identity has been withheld, plummeted eight meters to the concrete floor at a sports experience facility housed at Starfield Anseong Mall, they said. The facility offers various experience facilities, such as bungee jumping and climbing.

The victim was wearing safety equipment at the moment, but a key safety component, a carabiner, which is a type of safety hook, was unsecured at the time, they said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The government should threaten to suspend their licenses for far longer than three months. How about a 5-10 years; that would probably get them back into the hospital:

Interior Minister Lee Sang-min speaks during a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters at the government complex in Seoul on Feb. 26, 2024.

The government issued an ultimatum on Monday to trainee doctors who stopped work for a seventh day to protest against the government’s plan to boost medical students, warning that it could begin suspending the licenses of trainee doctors next month unless they return to work soon.

Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo told reporters that trainee doctors who refused to return to work by Thursday could start facing punishment the following day amid deepening concerns over public health as doctors and the government were on a collision course over the plan to raise the medical school admission quota by 2,000 seats next year.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The government should really revoke medical licenses from anyone participating in this strike that is adversely impacting so many patients:

To cope with a potential disruption of medical services, the government will extend operating hours at 97 public hospitals and emergency rooms at 12 military hospitals will be opened to the public, Park said.

“We are deeply disappointed and concerned that the collective action by trainee doctors has led to a disruption in medical services, such as the cancellation of surgeries,” Park said. 

“We cannot give justification to the actions of the doctors leaving their patients behind to protest a policy despite knowing what the collective action could result in,” Park added. 

“The government will put in utmost efforts to operate an emergency medical system to minimize possible damage to the patients.”

The government says the increase in the admission quota is needed to address a shortage of doctors, particularly in rural areas and essential medical fields, such as high-risk surgeries, pediatrics, obstetrics and emergency medicine.

The number of doctors in South Korea relative to the size of the population is among the lowest in the developed world, according to health authorities.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The cover up is what caused these senior police officials to be convicted of a crime, not the incompetence that contributed to the Itaewon crowd crush disaster:

A South Korean court on Wednesday convicted three former police officers of destroying internal files and other evidence in an attempted cover-up after a Halloween crowd crush that killed nearly 160 people in the capital, Seoul, in 2022. They were the first convictions over the deaths. The high death toll was largely blamed on official failures in disaster planning and a botched emergency response. More than 20 government and police officials were indicted.

The Seoul Western District Court sentenced Park Seong-min, a former senior intelligence officer at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, to 18 months in prison on charges that he ordered subordinates to erase internal documents after the crush. Those included reports showing how police ignored warnings about possible crowd-related accidents in the nightlife district of Itaewon. Kim Jin-ho, a former intelligence officer at Seoul’s Yongsan district police station, received a suspended one-year sentence on similar charges. Kwang Yeong-seok, a lower-ranking officer at the Yongsan station, received a four-month deferred sentence after being found guilty of destroying files under Kim’s instruction.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but what continues to amaze me about this Itaewon tragedy is that there is a police station right across the street from the Hamilton Hotel where the disaster happened. The police received warnings for hours of the dangerous crowds in the area and nothing was done by the police personnel in the station right across the street.

This is pretty ridiculous that these doctor trainees are vowing to go on strike because of the government’s increase in medical students in order to address a shortage of doctors:

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo (R) speaks at an emergency meeting with ministers at the government complex in central Seoul on Feb. 19, 2024. (Yonhap)

Trainee doctors began submitting their letters of collective resignation Monday in protest against the government’s plan to boost the number of medical students, while the health ministry ordered all of them to keep providing medical treatment. 

Worries mounted as doctors warn of a large-scale strike and other responses in opposition to the government’s decision to add 2,000 to the country’s medical school enrollment quota next year, marking a sharp rise from the current 3,058 seats.

Although the government had initially played down the possibility of doctors’ collective action, it is feared the nation will suffer substantial disruptions to its medical service, with some patients already experiencing delays in surgeries and other treatments in hospitals.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the ROK government is ordering the trainees to continue to provide medical services. If they do walkout it will be interesting to see if the government revokes their medical licenses thus ending their careers in medicine.

It will be interesting to see if the opening of relations with Cuba will open increased trade with South Korea from the island nation:

South Korea established diplomatic relations with Cuba on Wednesday, its mission to the United Nations said, in a surprise announcement that could pose a setback to North Korea that has long boasted brotherly ties with the Latin American country.

In New York, the two countries’ representatives to the United Nations exchanged diplomatic notes marking the establishment of the formal ties. Cuba is the 193rd country which South Korea has built diplomatic relations with.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.