"Prison is Where I Go"… Medical Association Leadership Encourages Collective Strike

Park Yong-eon, Vice President of KMA, Encourages KMA Members to Participate in Clinic Closures
Government Warns of Firm Response to Collective Action... "We Must Protect Public Health"

Regarding the collective strike by the Korean Medical Association (KMA) and others scheduled for the 18th, Park Yong-eon, Vice President of the KMA, encouraged KMA members to participate in the strike by saying, "I will go to jail."

On the 10th, Vice President Park posted on his Facebook account, "I will go to jail. Please do not become an embarrassing senior. It is on the 18th." The KMA declared at the nationwide doctors' representatives meeting held the previous day that there would be a full strike on the 18th along with a general rally, stating, "The KMA will take the lead in announcing the beginning of the struggle to save Korean healthcare."

Facebook post by Park Yong-eon, Vice President of the Korean Medical Association.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

However, the government announced it would firmly respond to the collective action by issuing medical orders and strike notification orders to private practitioners, who are a core part of the KMA. On the same day, Jeon Byung-wang, Director of Health and Medical Policy at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (CDSCH) briefing on the doctors' collective action, "Protecting the lives and health of the people is a constitutional duty entrusted to the government, and we have no choice but to respond firmly to the collective refusal of medical care."

He added, "Each city and province will issue medical orders based on Article 59, Paragraph 1 of the Medical Service Act, instructing medical institutions under their jurisdiction to provide medical services without a strike on the announced date of June 18. Furthermore, medical institutions intending to strike on that day will be required to report by June 13, three days prior."

The government views the KMA as inducing illegal collective action and plans to review whether there is a violation of the Fair Trade Act. Minister of Health and Welfare Cho Kyu-hong also explained, "This is the minimum necessary measure to protect the lives and health of the public against the medical community's collective strike." Therefore, all medical institutions nationwide must provide medical services without a strike until the 18th, and those planning to strike must report by the 13th.

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