The government in South Korea has made a last-ditch appeal to striking doctors to end their mass walkout, or face having their medical licenses suspended and prosecution.
Thousands of resident and intern doctors have walked off the job for the past 10 days in protest over government plans to raise the number of students enrolling at medical school by 2,000 each year.
They argue that the government should first address pay and working conditions before attempting to raise the number of doctors.
Health Minister Park Min-soo told a briefing that the government will not hold them responsible for leaving their worksites if they return today, noting that abandoning duty is not a good way to protest against the government.
Meanwhile, senior Health Ministry official Kim Chung-hwan also told a briefing that starting on March 4, doctors who missed the deadline to return to work would be notified of plans to suspend their licenses and that they would be given an opportunity to respond.
