Saudi dentists bring new expertise home from South Korea’s top medical schools

Saudi doctor Mohammed Al-Keshan, second left, participates in a conference at the Japanese Society of Pediatric Dentistry at Niigata University in May 2025. (Mohammed Al-Keshan)
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Updated 22 June 2025
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Saudi dentists bring new expertise home from South Korea’s top medical schools

  • Around a dozen Saudi dentists begin residency programs in South Korea each year
  • They are part of a program by the health ministries of Saudi Arabia and South Korea

SEOUL: When Mohammed Al-Keshan left Makkah to study at South Korea’s top university, he found himself not just 8,000 km away from home, but also in a place where everything seemed different from what he was used to.

Al-Keshan was already 32 when he started his dentistry residency at Seoul National University in 2017. He neither knew the language nor culture — and at that time, there were not many other students in Saudi Arabia with the experience of pursuing medicine in South Korea.

“Then, there was loneliness and homesickness. The courses were more intense (than in Saudi Arabia), and it took me about two to three months to adapt,” he told Arab News.

“It is not easy to learn at this age and to adapt to the culture. But the Korean people are very kind and smart. They gave me a lot of advice and were very helpful.”

Al-Keshan became one of the pioneers in a growing medical exchange program under the Saudi and Korean ministries of health that places a special focus on dental sciences.

The Seoul National University School of Dentistry, where he was enrolled, is ranked among the world’s 30 best dental schools.

After completing his residency in 2021 and receiving certification from the Saudi board, he returned to South Korea in 2024 to pursue further professional development at a special facility that his school runs: the Seoul Dental Hospital for the Disabled.

While in other countries dental care for people with disabilities is usually part of general dental care or is provided at specialized departments within broader hospitals, the South Korean hospital is the only dedicated dental hospital in the world exclusively for patients with disabilities.

“Saudi Arabia does not have a whole dental hospital that is dedicated to special needs care like the one at SNU. So, I would like to coordinate with the Ministry of Health to create one when I go back to Saudi Arabia,” Al-Keshan said.

“I would like to help build something similar … because people with special needs have different dentistry needs.”

The Saudi-Korean medical exchange program, which began in 2015, initially accepted no more than five dentists per year. The number has since more than doubled.

“I was the second batch that the MOH was sending to Korea. The first batch was in 2015 … It was usually under five people,” Al-Keshan said.

“I think it is around 11 or 12. So, there are many more people now.”

For South Korea, the initiative has become a model for global cooperation in healthcare and is resulting in a wave of medical professionals bringing global expertise back to the Kingdom.

Prof. Lee Yong-moo, head of SNU Dental Hospital, vowed during this year’s commencement ceremony for Saudi doctors to continue the training program to “nurture talent to develop Saudi Arabia’s dentistry field” as the program “has become a milestone global exchange project that contributes to the growing friendship between the two countries.”




Saudi dentist Youssef Bajnaid after graduating from a Korean language course at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in 2024. (Youssef Bajnaid) 

As the program expands, more young Saudi dentists are coming to South Korea to study at its top institutions. One of them is Youssef Bajnaid, a 33-year-old dentist from Jeddah, who arrived in South Korea in 2023. He is currently completing his residency in prosthodontics at Kyung Hee University — another institution known for its strong dental program.

He studied dentistry for seven years in Saudi Arabia and after a year of learning Korean at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies is now a resident in the prosthodontics department.

“My batch is 11 doctors … We want to know the (latest) treatment methods in the dentistry field,” he said.

“And I want to represent my country during my work. I get a lot of support from my professors at Kyung Hee … We have the same vision.”


Eritrean president warns Ethiopia against waging war

Updated 6 sec ago
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Eritrean president warns Ethiopia against waging war

  • At the heart of the current tension, according to the Eritrean government, is landlocked Ethiopia’s long-held desire for a seaport.

NAIROBI: Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki has warned neighbor Ethiopia against launching a new war between the bitter foes, with tensions high in the Horn of Africa region.
Eritrea and Ethiopia have had fraught relations since the former declared independence in 1993, with tens of thousands of people killed in a war between the two from 1998 to 2000.
At the heart of the current tension, according to the Eritrean government, is landlocked Ethiopia’s long-held desire for a seaport.
Afwerki, who has ruled Eritrea with an iron fist since independence, warned Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed that he would not be able to simply overwhelm his country by weight of numbers — Ethiopia’s population is 130 million, compared to just 3.5 million people living in Eritrea.
“If he thinks he can overwhelm (Eritrean forces) with human wave attack, (he is mistaken),” Afwerki told state television channel Eri-TV.
“Before dragging the people of Ethiopia into unwanted wars or using them for another political agenda, the country’s internal problems must be first addressed and solved,” he said.
He called Abiy’s actions a “reckless” attempt to “divert attention” from domestic problems.
Abiy signed a peace deal with Afwerki shortly after coming to power in 2018, but a violent conflict erupted in Ethiopia’s Tigray province from 2020 to 2022 as Eritrea’s forces backed rebels there fighting Ethiopian troops.
At least 600,000 people were killed in the conflict, according to an African Union estimate.
Although a peace deal ended the fighting, Eritrea has maintained a military presence in Tigray and relations between the neighbors have deteriorated.
Abiy has repeatedly said Ethiopia must have access to the sea, but by peaceful means.
Last month, a report by a US monitoring group accused Eritrea of rebuilding its army and destabilising its neighbors.
Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Ghebremeskel criticized the report by NGO The Sentry and blamed “the new tension in the region” on Ethiopia.
Eritrea had been under US arms sanctions that were lifted after the 2018 peace deal.
Eritrea is a single-party state which consistently ranks among the worst in the world for rights — in last place for press freedom, according to Reporters Without Borders, and 175th out of 183 for human development in 2022, according to the United Nations.


Tsunami alert after powerful quakes strike off coast of Russia: USGS

Updated 20 July 2025
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Tsunami alert after powerful quakes strike off coast of Russia: USGS

  • Earlier 5.0-magnitude and 6.7-magnitude earthquakes did not initially trigger a tsunami alert

MOSCOW: Three powerful earthquakes struck off the coast of Russia’s far east on Sunday, triggering a tsunami alert, the US Geological Survey said.
Earlier 5.0-magnitude and 6.7-magnitude earthquakes did not initially trigger a tsunami alert, but were followed by a 7.4-magnitude quake at 0849 GMT, prompting the USGS to warn that “hazardous tsunami waves are possible” within 300 kilometers (186 miles) of the epicenter in the Pacific, off the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.


Russia says it downed 142 Ukrainian drones, including 27 over Moscow region

Updated 20 July 2025
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Russia says it downed 142 Ukrainian drones, including 27 over Moscow region

  • The drones were reportedly shot down over a number of regions in the European part of Russia, as well as over the Black Sea

MOSCOW: Russia’s defense ministry and the mayor of Moscow said it had downed 142 drones overnight, including 27 over the Moscow region.

The drones were reportedly shot down over a number of regions in the European part of Russia, as well as over the Black Sea.

The latest attacks included four drones headed toward the Russian capital, which were downed on Sunday morning, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram around 1000 local time (0700 GMT).

According to Russia’s aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia, four major airports serving Moscow – Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovskiy – were affected, resulting in 134 flights being redirected.

By 1000 Moscow time, only two airports remained closed to air traffic – Vnukovo in the Moscow region and Grabtsevo in the Kaluga region.


Heavy rains in South Korea leave 14 dead and 12 others missing

Updated 20 July 2025
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Heavy rains in South Korea leave 14 dead and 12 others missing

  • Since Wednesday, southern regions have received up to about 600-800 millimeters of rain

SEOUL: Torrential rains that slammed South Korea for five days have left 14 people dead and 12 others missing, the government said Sunday.

One person was killed on Sunday after their house collapsed during heavy rain and another person was found dead after being swept by a swollen stream in Gapyeong, a town northeast of Seoul, the Interior and Safety Ministry said.

The ministry said eight people were discovered dead and six others were reported missing in the southern town of Sancheong on Saturday after heavy downpours caused landslides, house collapses and flash floods there.

A ministry report said that six people remain missing in Gapyeong and the southern city of Gwangju.

Earlier last week, three people were found dead in a submerged car, and a person was also killed when their car was buried by soil and concrete after a retaining wall of an overpass collapsed in Osan, just south of Seoul, during heavy rain.

As of 9 a.m. on Sunday, about 3,840 people remain evacuated from their homes, the ministry report said. The rain stopped in most of South Korea on Sunday, and heavy rain alerts have been subsequently lifted throughout the country, ministry officials said.

Since Wednesday, southern regions have received up to about 600-800 millimeters (24-31 inches) of rain, according to the ministry report.


Tearful relatives await news from Vietnam wreck rescue

Updated 20 July 2025
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Tearful relatives await news from Vietnam wreck rescue

  • The Wonder Sea boat was carrying 48 passengers and five crew members
  • Rescue workers saved 11 people, and recovered the dead near the site of the capsizing

HALONG BAY, Vietnam: Relatives anxiously sat beside ambulances on the wharf of one of Vietnam’s most popular tourist sites on Sunday, waiting for news of loved ones who were on a tourist boat that capsized killing dozens.

Fruits and flowers were laid on the coast for the at least 37 killed in the wreckage on Saturday in what some called Ha Long Bay’s worst-ever disaster.

As rescuers worked into Sunday morning to salvage the sunken boat, a handful of people were still missing.

The tourist vessel called “Wonder Sea” had been carrying 53 people, including more than 20 children, around the UNESCO World Heritage Site, according to state media.

Hoang Quang rushed from Hanoi to Quang Ninh province at 2:00 am on Sunday for news of his cousin and her family who were on the boat when it capsized.

The couple – a housewife and fruit seller married to a bus driver – had “tried their best” to afford the trip around the world-famous bay.

“They found the body of (the husband), not my cousin yet,” Hoang said.

He was “so shocked” when he heard news of the incident and immediately went to the wharf with other worried family members.

“Suddenly the victims were my relatives – anyone would be scared. We didn’t know what to do, except to keep waiting,” he said.

“We think that as we are all here, she knew and she would show up. We are all so anxious... We just wish and pray for her to come back here to us.”

At Ha Long city’s main funeral home, AFP journalists saw bodies wrapped in red cloth being carried in on stretchers, as friends and relatives cried in front of more than a dozen coffins.

A 68-year-old man, who asked not to be named, rushed to the scene at 3:00 am, only to discover that his relatives – a young family of four, including two boys – had died in the capsizing.

“We were all so shocked,” he said tearfully. “This was a very sudden accident. They were just taking the kids out to the bay for summer holidays and it ended up terrible.”

The bodies of the mother and children had been recovered, but he was awaiting news of the father to be able to cremate them together.

“We know there is no hope,” he said.

The friend of another victim, a firefighter who had taken the trip with colleagues, said they had known each other since university.

“He was still single. We brought his body back to (his hometown) for burial early this morning,” the friend said.

He praised the rescue efforts and said provincial authorities had given families 25 million dong ($955) for each victim.

By early Sunday, the wreckage had been towed into the wharf and 11 people had been taken to a nearby hospital, where one more died later in the day.

Security guard Nguyen Tuan Anh spent the night on the wharf where ambulances were waiting to carry the bodies away – a scene he described as “painful.”

“I don’t think I have experienced this scene before. This maybe the worst accident ever in Ha Long Bay,” he said, adding it had been “unpredictable and also I think unpreparable.”

“The whirlwind came so sudden and so big. The wind blew off the framework of a big stage for a grand music show nearby,” he said.

Ha Long Bay is one of Vietnam’s most popular tourist destinations, with millions of people visiting its blue-green waters and rainforest-topped limestone islands each year.

Several hundred rescuers including professional divers, soldiers, and firefighters joined the search for survivors through the night and heavy rain, state media said.

“The whirlwind came just so sudden,” a rescue worker, who asked not to be named, said on Saturday.

“As the boat turned upside down, several people were stuck inside the cabin. Me and other rescuers pulled up two bodies and rescued one,” he said.

“The accident was so devastating.”