PPP leader says potential gov't-doctors talks could be 'new starting point' in resolving prolonged walkout
Ruling People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon speaks during a party campaign meeting at Hanyang University in Seoul, March 25. Yonhap
Ruling party leader Han Dong-hoon said Monday that potential talks between the government and medical professors can be a "new starting point" in resolving the prolonged walkout by junior doctors before it further escalates.
Han, the leader of the People Power Party (PPP), made the remarks after President Yoon Suk Yeol called for "constructive dialogue" with doctors and instructed Prime Minister Han Duck-soo to deal "flexibly" with the issue of suspending the licenses of striking doctors.
Yoon's instruction came after Han had a closed-door meeting with a group of medical professors in an effort to explore the possibility of dialogue amid little signs of a breakthrough in the strike by junior doctors against the government's plan to increase the medical school admissions by 2,000 starting next year.
Medical professors also began submitting their resignations and reducing their work hours in support of a prolonged walkout by trainee doctors. The walkout, now into its sixth week, has become a hot-button issue in the lead-up to the parliamentary elections set for April 10.
On Monday, Han said that medical professors asked during Sunday's meeting that the government exercise "flexibility" in dealing with the issue of suspending licenses of junior doctors for defying the government's return-to-work order.
"I delivered the request to the president and conveyed the opinion that this should fully be considered, and the government accepted it," Han told reporters after a party campaign meeting.
"So, I think it can be a new starting point," Han said.
Han pointed out that resolving the clash needs some time given that there are multiple parties involved, and said that he has a mediation job to prevent the situation from bringing a catastrophic outcome.
"I've heard a desperate call for mediation, so please keep watching. How can it all end at once?" Han said.
The PPP leader declined to comment when asked about the need for the government to revise the 2,000 quota.
"Any direction that I propose will bring confusion ... Many people agree to the government's direction," he said. "We lacked in efforts to start a constructive dialogue and my job is to mediate that part."
Rep. Lee Jae-myung, center, the leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, visits a market in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, March 25. Yonahp
Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung took a swipe at the PPP for using Han's mediation aiming for an eleventh-hour agreement in an attempt to boost the party's support ahead of the general elections.
"What I don't understand is this. We have the prime minister, the health minister in the government, and all of a sudden the ruling party chief says he's been asked, or assigned, to do this," Lee, the leader of the Democratic Party of Korea said in a press briefing while campaigning in Changwon, some 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
Lee urged the ruling party to keep political motivation out of the issue.
"This is the government's job, not the party's," Lee said. "We ask the government and the presidential office not to approach this issue from a political perspective, but resolve it seriously and faithfully from the perspective of people's rights to health, their lives and safety." (Yonhap)