The Korean Medical Association (KMA) criticized the government's decision to expand medical school enrollment by 3,342 students from 2027 to 2031, expressing "deep regret and concern over a government decision that lacks rational reasoning and is fixated solely on numbers."
KMA President Kim Taek-woo held a press conference immediately following the government briefing on the 10th, stating, "Pushing forward recklessly without improving educational conditions is problematic."
"The 10% upper limit for educable capacity that the Korean Institute of Medical Education and Evaluation emphasized so strongly was completely ignored," Kim said. "The current medical education environment is on the verge of collapse. The government's forced implementation of medical school expansion is a path toward educational failure."
He added, "All responsibility for future disputes over the quality of physicians produced and the collapse of medical education lies entirely with the government. The government must take responsibility and normalize the destroyed medical education system."
Kim also demanded the Ministry of Education "calculate realistic enrollment numbers reflecting field conditions," noting that "far fewer than the announced enrollment quota can receive proper education." He added that "the medical workforce projection cycle should be shortened from the current five years to three years." Kim, a member of the supplementary deliberation committee, was confirmed to have been absent from the final vote on medical school quota expansion.
However, apparently conscious of public opinion that has grown cold after more than two years of conflict between the government and medical community, he did not mention specific protest measures. The KMA plans to gather members' opinions through an emergency executive board meeting following the press conference and a governance meeting on the 11th involving medical residents and medical school professors before announcing future actions.
Earlier, the Ministry of Health and Welfare held the 7th Health and Medical Policy Deliberation Committee meeting and decided to increase physician training capacity at 32 non-Seoul medical schools by an annual average of 668 students from 2027 to 2031. To ease the burden on medical education in the early stages, the government announced it would gradually increase enrollment by 490 in 2027, 613 in 2028-2029, and 813 from 2030 onward, totaling 3,342 additional students over five years.
Paradoxically, the KMA is taking a cautious stance on collective action because the government largely accepted the medical community's demands. This expansion plan was derived through the "scientific projection body" that the medical community had long demanded, and the share of medical community-recommended personnel was significantly increased in the committee composition process. Unlike during the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, when collective action was justified by claims of "groundless 2,000-student expansion," such justification is difficult to invoke under the current structure. With negative public sentiment and uncertainty over whether medical residents and medical students—who led protests since the 2020 medical school expansion push—will take the lead again, observers largely believe large-scale collective resignations or boycotts like those in 2024 are unlikely to recur. Given low participation rates among private practitioners in strikes, the KMA appears more likely to pursue practical gains through negotiations with the government rather than unjustified collective action.
Asked whether a general strike was being considered, KMA spokesperson Kim Sung-geun said, "We are not placing limits on future action directions," but added cautiously, "While there may be interest in whether we will take collective action, we believe gathering internal opinions first is our priority."