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President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks at a meeting on economic policy held at the presidential office compound in Seoul on April 4, 2024. (courtesy of presidential office)

President Yoon Suk-yeol met with Park Dan, the head of the Korean Intern Resident Association (KIRA), at the presidential office in Yongsan, Seoul, on Thursday.

Following a meeting that lasted for nearly two and a half hours, the presidential office said that Yoon has “agreed to respect the position of the trainee doctors” in regard to creating more placements at medical schools,” but Park posted on social media after the meeting that there’s “no future” for the medical field in Korea.

Kim Soo-kyung, a spokesperson for the presidential office, told the press in a written statement that Yoon and Park’s meeting had begun at 2 pm and lasted for 140 minutes.

“The president listened carefully to Park’s account of issues with the medical system, and the two shared their opinions about improving working conditions and treatment for trainee doctors. The president has agreed to respect the position of the trainee doctors in future discussions with the medical community about reform of medical services, including the plan to add more placements at medical schools,” Kim said in the statement.

The statement added that Park had described in detail the poor working conditions and treatment faced by the trainee doctors. The conversation between the two came 45 days after the majority of trainee doctors submitted their resignations and left their workplaces on Feb. 19 in protest of the government’s plans to raise the yearly admission cap at medical schools by 2,000 people.

Yoon was accompanied at his meeting with Park by his spokesperson Kim and by Sung Tae-yoon, the chief of policy for the presidential office.

Two hours after his meeting with the president, Park posted a single line on social media: “There’s no future for medicine in Korea.” The frustration evident here suggests that he and Yoon failed to reconcile their differences in the meeting.

Yoon and Park’s meeting took place two days after Cho Yun-jung, the former head of public relations for the Medical Professors Association of Korea, asked the president to meet with the trainee doctors. The presidential office said the same day that Yoon “wants to meet with the trainee doctors, who are behind the strike, and hear from them personally.”

“Since the president himself will be at this meeting, I decided it’s worth personally conveying the position of the trainee doctors and making at least one attempt to reach a solution before the general elections on April 10,” Park said in a message to the trainee doctors on Thursday morning.

“Nothing has changed from the position expressed in our statement and demands on Feb. 20,” he said.

KIRA’s demands included the following: going back to the drawing board on the government’s essential medical services policy package and its plan to increase placements at medical schools, establishing an agency to provide scientific estimates of what doctors’ payouts should be, and improving working conditions for trainee doctors.

By Lee Seung-jun, staff reporter; Jang Na-rye, staff reporter

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