SEOUL: South Korea said Monday it had started procedures to suspend the medical licenses of 4,900 junior doctors who have resigned and stopped working to protest government medical training reforms, causing health care chaos.
The walkout, which started February 20, is over government plans to sharply increase the number of doctors, which it says is essential to combat shortages and South Korea’s rapidly aging population, while the medics argue it will erode service quality.
Nearly 12,000 junior doctors — 93 percent of the trainee workforce — were not in their hospitals at the last count, despite government back to work orders and threats of legal action, forcing Seoul to mobilize military medics and millions of dollars in state reserves to help.
The Health Ministry on Monday said it had sent administrative notifications — the first step to suspending the doctors’ medical licenses — to thousands of trainee doctors after they defied specific orders telling them to return to their hospitals.
“As of March 8 (notifications) have been sent to more than 4,900 trainee doctors,” Chun Byung-wang, director of the health and medical policy division at the health ministry, told reporters.
The government has previously warned striking doctors they face a three month suspension of their licenses, a punishment which, it says, will delay by at least a year their ability to qualify as specialists.
Chun urged the striking medics to return to their patients.
“The government will take into account the circumstance and protect trainee doctors if they return to work before the administrative measure is complete,” he said, indicating doctors who come back to work now could avoid the punishment.
“The government will not give up dialogue. The door for dialogue is always open ... The government will respect and listen to opinions of the medical community as a companion for the medical reforms,” he added.
The government last week announced new measures to improve pay and conditions for trainee medics, plus a review of the continuous 36-hour work period, which is a major gripe of junior doctors.
The strikes have led to surgery cancelations, long wait times and delayed treatments at major hospitals.
Seoul has mobilized military doctors and earmarked millions of dollars of state reserves to ease service shortfalls, but has denied that there is a full-blown health care crisis.
Military doctors will start working in civilian hospitals from Wednesday this week, Chun said.
Under South Korean law, doctors are restricted from striking, and the health ministry has asked police to investigate people connected to the work stoppage.
The government is pushing to admit 2,000 more students to medical schools annually from next year to address what it calls one of the lowest doctor-to-population ratios among developed nations.
Doctors say they fear the reform will erode the quality of service and medical education, but proponents accuse medics of trying to safeguard their salaries and social status.
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“Officers were on scene within two minutes of being alerted shortly after 4am (0400 GMT),” the force said.
The graffiti, which workers were cleaning early Friday, called the wartime leader a “Zionist war criminal.”
The words “free Palestine” and “stop the genocide” were also sprayed on the statue.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office called the damage “completely abhorrent” and said it was “glad” police had made an arrest.
“Churchill was a great Briton,” a spokesman said. “This government will always stand up for our values and the perpetrator must be held to account.”
- Pre-recorded message -
A Dutch activist, naming himself as Olax Outis, claimed responsibility for the stunt in a message shared on social media by campaign group Prisoners for Palestine.
“If you see this message that peaceful protest has begun... it’s a reasonable assumption that I’m currently in a jail, somewhere in London,” the pre-recorded message said.
Outis said he was a member of Dutch group “Free the Filton 24 NL,” a group supporting the 24 Palestine Action activists charged over a break-in at a UK factory belonging to Israeli defense firm Elbit in 2024.
The group posted a video on its Instagram account appearing to show a man dressed in overalls, with “I support Palestine Action” written on the back, painting the statue.
Other slogans painted onto the statue included “globalize the intifada.”
In December, police said people chanting this phrase would be arrested as part of efforts to counter antisemitism and incitement to violence through slogans.
The police stance followed a deadly October attack on a synagogue in the English city of Manchester, and a December shooting at a Jewish festival at Australia’s Bondi Beach in Sydney in which 15 people were killed.
The intifada refers to Palestinian uprisings against Israeli occupation. The first raged from 1987 to 1993, while the second flared between 2000 and 2005.
The 3.6 meter (12-foot) Churchill statue has been vandalized a number of times in recent years, including during Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion climate demonstrations in 2020.
South Korea starts procedures to suspend licenses of 4,900 striking doctors
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South Korea starts procedures to suspend licenses of 4,900 striking doctors
- Nearly 12,000 junior doctors – 93 percent of the trainee workforce – are not in their hospitals at the last count
- Work stoppage forces Seoul to mobilize military medics and millions of dollars in state reserves to help
UK police arrest man after Churchill statue sprayed with graffiti
- The words “free Palestine” and “stop the genocide” were also sprayed on the statue
- The man detained was also held on suspicion of supporting Palestine Action
LONDON: A 38-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated criminal damage, UK police said Friday, after pro-Palestinian graffiti was sprayed on a Winston Churchill statue in central London.
The iconic monument to the World War II British prime minister in Parliament Square “was graffitied with red paint” overnight, the Metropolitan Police said on X.
“Officers were on scene within two minutes of being alerted shortly after 4am (0400 GMT),” the force said.
The graffiti, which workers were cleaning early Friday, called the wartime leader a “Zionist war criminal.”
The words “free Palestine” and “stop the genocide” were also sprayed on the statue.
The man detained was also held on suspicion of supporting Palestine Action, a proscribed organization under the Terrorism Act, police added.
The Greater London Authority condemned the “vandalism” and said work was underway to remove the graffiti “as quickly as possible.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office called the damage “completely abhorrent” and said it was “glad” police had made an arrest.
“Churchill was a great Briton,” a spokesman said. “This government will always stand up for our values and the perpetrator must be held to account.”
- Pre-recorded message -
A Dutch activist, naming himself as Olax Outis, claimed responsibility for the stunt in a message shared on social media by campaign group Prisoners for Palestine.
“If you see this message that peaceful protest has begun... it’s a reasonable assumption that I’m currently in a jail, somewhere in London,” the pre-recorded message said.
Outis said he was a member of Dutch group “Free the Filton 24 NL,” a group supporting the 24 Palestine Action activists charged over a break-in at a UK factory belonging to Israeli defense firm Elbit in 2024.
The group posted a video on its Instagram account appearing to show a man dressed in overalls, with “I support Palestine Action” written on the back, painting the statue.
Other slogans painted onto the statue included “globalize the intifada.”
In December, police said people chanting this phrase would be arrested as part of efforts to counter antisemitism and incitement to violence through slogans.
The police stance followed a deadly October attack on a synagogue in the English city of Manchester, and a December shooting at a Jewish festival at Australia’s Bondi Beach in Sydney in which 15 people were killed.
The intifada refers to Palestinian uprisings against Israeli occupation. The first raged from 1987 to 1993, while the second flared between 2000 and 2005.
The 3.6 meter (12-foot) Churchill statue has been vandalized a number of times in recent years, including during Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion climate demonstrations in 2020.
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