President Yoon Suk Yeol and ruling People Power Party (PPP) interim leader Han Dong-hoon are demonstrating a united stance and advocating for dialogue with striking doctors, aiming to prevent the issue from negatively impacting support for the ruling bloc leading up to the general elections.
The synchronized approach toward the April 10 elections introduces an element of uncertainty. This stance contrasts with Yoon’s prior commitment not to concede to the strike and to advance his medical reform agenda by expanding the enrollment quota for medical students.
According to the presidential office, Yoon ordered his administration on Sunday evening to devise “flexible measures” regarding the license suspensions that striking trainee doctors faced. This directive came promptly after the president received a request from Han.
During a meeting with Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Monday, Yoon reiterated that the government “should have candid conversations with medical and other social groups.”
The order came after the prime minister held a 50-minute closed-door meeting with representatives of the Medical Professors Association of Korea about the month-long standoff between the government and doctors over the president’s drive to expand the enrollment quota for medical schools across the country.
The swift cooperation between Yoon and the PPP chief is perceived as both leaders seeking breakthroughs in the current situation. The administration faces mounting pressure due to the prolonged strike, while the ruling party is noticing a decline in support with just over two weeks remaining until the elections.
The Yoon government has unilaterally decided to increase the total annual enrollment quota for medical schools by 2,000 slots — a move that has been met with opposition from over 90 percent of the nation’s 13,000 trainee doctors, who have been on strike in the form of mass resignations since February. Until Sunday afternoon, the government had vowed to commence suspending the medical licenses of trainee doctors starting Tuesday.
Although surveys show that the majority of voters still approve Yoon’s quota increase, fears have been growing within the ruling bloc that the public’s patience will be drained over the president’s steadfast stance, as the standoff drags on and continues to disrupt the country’s medical system and public access to treatment.
The PPP was also in need of a chance to reverse a drop in public support, as the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) pulled itself together after some internal conflicts were resolved.
People Power Party interim leader Han Dong-hoon speaks during the party’s election camp meeting at Hanyang University in Seongdong District, Seoul, Monday. Yonhap
The PPP chief proposed a compromise to the president, styling himself as one capable of bringing a resolution to the standoff. This also provided Yoon with a pretext to take a step back from his hardline stance against doctors.
“I will serve my political role as an arbitrator for constructive conversation and a mediator who can address this problem,” Han told reporters Monday.
Political analysts suggest that the public display of alignment between Yoon and Han is an attempt by the ruling bloc to appeal to the public ahead of the elections.
“With approximately two weeks left before the general elections, public sentiment toward the ruling bloc is not that good, and their (Yoon and Han) actions show that they were observing an alarming signal and there is no other effective option to choose in the current political situation,” said Cho Jin-man, a politics professor at Duksung Women’s University.
Cho suggested, however, that their actions might not necessarily lead to a win-win situation for the ruling bloc. This is because the compromising gestures could raise public doubts about why Yoon initially pushed the medical reform so forcefully if he could compromise his determination on medical reform with a single request from the ruling party leader.
“I think Sunday’s actions were a political mistake,” Cho said. “With the elections coming in two weeks, the president compromised his stance on a single word of the ruling party after paying all those social costs that arose through the standoff. This can be interpreted as if the president is admitting that he pushed it too hard, and provide a chance to the opposition to mount offensives.”
Professors of Korea University College of Medicine lodge their resignations during a meeting at the university’s hospital in Seoul, Monday, in protest against the government’s policy to expand the annual enrollment quota of medical schools across the country. Yonhap
In line with Cho’s comments, main opposition Democratic Party of Korea floor leader Rep. Hong Ihk-pyo said in a radio interview with broadcaster BBS that Han’s mediation was “choreographed for the general elections.”
“I knew this would happen,” Hong said. “I think the government used the medical school admissions quota issue more for political gain than to genuinely improve the country’s health care system … I believe this was all part of the scenario in which the government is creating an impression that it is actually working for the people by criticizing doctors, and eventually allowing the PPP to emerge and patch up the feud by making concessions to medical associations.”
