Mokpo City Council Participates in National Assembly Rally to Urge Establishment of Jeonnam National Medical University

Moon Cha-bok Chairperson "Concerned about Government Policy to Increase Existing Medical School Quotas"

Chairman Moon Cha-bok and members of the Mokpo City Council participated in a rally on the afternoon of the 18th at 2 PM in front of the National Assembly and the War Memorial, urging the establishment of a national medical school in Jeollanam-do.

(Center) Moon Cha-bok, Chairman of the Mokpo City Council, is urging the establishment of a national medical school in Jeollanam-do.
[Photo by Mokpo City Council]

According to the city council on the 19th, about 500 people, including the chairman of the Jeollanam-do Provincial Council and representatives of professional organizations, attended the rally that day.

Chairman Moon Cha-bok stated, “The citizens of Mokpo have earnestly demanded the establishment of a national medical school in Jeollanam-do for the past 30 years,” and expressed strong concerns over the government’s recent policy to only increase the enrollment capacity of existing medical schools rather than establishing new ones.

He continued, “Jeollanam-do is the only one among the 16 metropolitan cities and provinces without a medical school, and among its 22 cities and counties, 17 are emergency-vulnerable areas. The average medical expense per person is the highest nationwide,” he lamented.

He added, “The government’s policy to increase only the enrollment capacity of existing medical schools from 2025 will worsen the medical disparity between Jeollanam-do, a medically underserved area, and other regions due to the concentration of medical personnel in the metropolitan area. This runs counter to the government’s national goal of ‘a local era where it is good to live anywhere’ and will instead lead to the collapse of the local medical system.”

The Mokpo City Council members demanded, to guarantee the minimum basic right to medical care, △ the establishment of new medical school enrollment quotas in the nationwide medical school admissions after 2025 △ and urged the establishment of a national medical school and university hospital in Jeollanam-do within the new medical school enrollment quotas.

Meanwhile, the Mokpo City Council is taking the lead in agile responses and consolidating regional capabilities for attracting a medical school in Jeollanam-do through activities such as the Special Committee for Medical School Attraction.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.