Medical student "Submit a leave of absence this year"...Medical community's hard-line response continues

[Anchor]
Medical students across the country, who have been taking a leave of absence since early last year in protest against the increase in medical schools, have decided to submit a leave of absence again this year.

With hard-liners expected to be elected as the president of the new Medical Association, the parliamentary conflict is expected to continue.

Reporter Kim Joo-young reports.

[Reporter]
With the parliamentary conflict continuing for nearly a year, medical students plan to continue their hard-line struggle this year.

Forty medical students across the country held a closed extraordinary meeting over the weekend,
At this meeting,
participants strongly protested, saying that the government's policy promotion was defined as medical reform and that the government regarded it only as a target to suppress the medical community without the will to talk.

At the same time, we agreed to submit a large number of leave of absence this year.

Units or grades that cannot be submitted for leave of absence will participate in similar actions.

Following last year, he made it clear that he would not return to school unless the government policy was withdrawn.

As a result, the government's plan to return medical students by banning them from school for more than a year is expected to suffer.

The Ministry of Education only says that no decision has yet been made on how to respond if medical students take a leave of absence this year.

In the meantime, only candidates Kim Taek-woo and Joo Su-ho, who are classified as hardliners, remain as candidates for the new chairman of the Korean Medical Association, the largest medical organization, waiting for the final choice.

Both candidates are strongly opposed to government policies, arguing that the president should stop pursuing policies and reduce medical school capacity again.

The conflict between the government and the medical community seems to be difficult to resolve this year as not only medical doctors but also medical students and medical doctors are unlikely to bend their hard-line positions.

I'm Kim Joo-young of YTN.