Foreign medical license holders to be allowed to practice medicine S Korea

Those holding a medical license issued from foreign nations will be allowed to legally practice medicine in South Korea in the case the government declares a top-level medical service warning, the health ministry said Wednesday, Yonhap reports.

The revision to the enforcement regulation of the Medical Act came as the country is experiencing major medical service disruptions due to the monthslong walkout by trainee doctors in protest of the government's push to increase the number of medical students by 2,000 starting next year from the current 3,058.

Under the revision, those who have foreign medical licenses will be able to practice medicine in South Korea upon the approval by the health minister when the country is in the highest medical disaster alert mode.

The government pre-announced the revision on the day through May 20.

Upon the junior doctors' walkout that began on Feb. 20, the government raised the national medical disaster alert to the highest "serious" level from Feb. 23 and has activated an emergency response mode.

More than 90 percent of the country's 13,000 trainee doctors have suspended their work, and medical professors, who serve as senior doctors at hospitals, have tendered resignations to support the junior doctors and to call on the government to find a breakthrough.