Most South Korea trainee doctors defying pressure to end walkout

Thousands of South Korean trainee doctors are refusing to return to work on Thursday, the day the government set as a deadline to end their mass walk out, warning that their medical licences could be suspended if they do not return to hospitals.
Two-thirds of the country’s residents and intern doctors have walked off the job to protest a plan to raise the number of students admitted to medical school each year by 2,000 in a bid to address what the government says is a shortage of doctors.
As of Wednesday, only 294 of the more than 9,000 trainee doctors who have left their posts were back at work, Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo told a briefing.
The young doctors who are protesting say the government should first address pay and working conditions before trying to increase the number of physicians.