Police to Summon Medical Association Executives This Week... Investigation Also Underway into Alleged Involvement of Pharmaceutical Company Employees

The police have notified former and current executives of the Korean Medical Association (KMA) to appear this week, marking the start of a full-scale investigation into their violations of the Medical Service Act.

At a regular press briefing held on the 4th, Woo Jong-su, head of the National Investigation Headquarters of the National Police Agency, stated, “We have notified five former and current KMA executives to appear for questioning,” adding, “The dates for their appearances have been somewhat set, but it is difficult to disclose them.”

The former and current executives mentioned by Director Woo include Kim Taek-woo, Chairman of the KMA Emergency Response Committee (Chairman of the Gangwon Medical Association), Joo Soo-ho, Chairman of the KMA Emergency Response Committee’s Media and Public Relations Committee, Park Myung-ha, Chairman of the Emergency Response Committee’s Organizational Strengthening Committee (Chairman of the Seoul Medical Association), Lim Hyun-taek, Chairman of the Korean Pediatric Society, and Noh Hwan-gyu, former KMA President.

The police have already imposed travel bans on four current executives, including Chairman Kim, and plan to request a travel ban on former President Noh within the day.

Earlier, after the government’s deadline for resident doctors to return passed on the 29th of last month, the police executed search warrants on March 1st targeting former and current KMA executives. Additional searches were conducted on the 3rd for former President Noh, who was overseas at the time.

Regarding allegations that doctors coerced pharmaceutical sales representatives to attend a mass rally held in downtown Seoul last weekend, Director Woo explained, “If it is confirmed that doctors used their positions to mobilize pharmaceutical company employees for unnecessary activities such as attending rallies, it constitutes coercion.” He added, “If specific illegal acts are confirmed, we will immediately launch an investigation.”

However, Director Woo noted, “So far, there is no confirmation that such mobilization actually took place,” clarifying, “This means that if reports or complaints are received from informants or related authorities, we will actively investigate.”

Additionally, the police are still tracking the poster who left a message on the online community Medistaff instructing others to delete related data from the computer system before resigning.

Director Woo stated, “During the analysis of materials seized from Medistaff’s office and servers, an email presumed to have been used by the poster was identified, and a search warrant was executed for that email,” adding, “We are in the process of verifying the actual user information.”

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