KMA: "Korea is a Liberal Democracy, Violence Forcing Sacrifice Must Stop"

"Criminal Complaint Filed Against Poster of False Internal Document Leak"
"Acknowledging Mistakes and Reconsidering from Scratch Is Not a Government Defeat"

The medical community urged the government not to commit violence by forcing the sacrifice of a specific minority group and called for a fundamental review of the policy.

Joo Suho, Chairman of the Emergency Response Committee Public Relations Committee of the Korean Medical Association. / Photo by Choi Taewon peaceful1@

The Emergency Response Committee of the Korean Medical Association held a regular briefing at 2 p.m. on the 8th at the KMA Hall in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, and made this statement. Joo Suho, the KMA Emergency Committee's Public Relations Officer, said, "Due to the government's decision, residents and medical students who have lost hope for the future no longer intend to sacrifice their lives," adding, "The government is using the fallacy that public interest takes precedence over citizens' basic rights, blaming and forcing sacrifice on those who have lost hope and made the decision to give up."

He continued, "Recently, the government created and distributed a video titled 'we need U' asking residents to return to patients' sides, using the phrase 'for our lives rather than your own,'" adding, "This expression comes from a totalitarian mindset that considers individual sacrifice natural for the sake of public interest. Forced sacrifice is violence."

He also argued that the submission of resignation letters by residents is not a collective action. He said, "If it were collective action, everyone would have acted the same way, but many residents continued working without submitting resignation letters, and some who left returned voluntarily. Observing the series of events such as resignation submissions and partial returns, anyone can see that the voluntary giving up by residents is not collective action."

As residents and medical students steadfastly continue their choices and do not yield to any government pressure, the government and some factions are showing signs of anxiety. They have even gone so far as to tarnish doctors' morality and continuously produce and spread fake news to undermine the legitimacy of the doctors' ongoing actions.

Recently, they also announced plans to sue the author of a post on a certain community board that allegedly exposed internal documents of the KMA Emergency Committee. Chairman Joo said, "After reviewing the post, the content was clearly fake news and fabricated false documents that were never created by the Emergency Committee," adding, "We will file a criminal complaint against the poster and will definitely identify who created the fake news."

Furthermore, he reiterated the request for the government to fundamentally review its policy. He said, "I propose a sincere discussion from the ground up on whether the cause of the collapse of Korea's medical system is due to a shortage of doctors as the government claims, or the result of accumulated faulty policies as claimed by 140,000 doctors," adding, "If there is a major error in the policy decision process, admitting the mistake and reviewing it from the beginning is neither a defeat nor a failure for the government."

He continued, "Please understand that the public is waiting for a message from the government that honestly admits mistakes and actively cooperates with the medical community to establish a proper medical system and genuine medical reform. Also, please keep in mind that such a change in attitude will be the starting point to save Korea's medical system, which is currently falling off a cliff," he added.

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