Row rises over sex offender's medical license

Controversy is growing after a convicted sex offender, who later enrolled as a medical student at Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), is likely to apply to take the 2020 state examination to qualify as a doctor. / Yonhap

By Kim Jae-heun

Controversy is growing after a convicted sex offender, who later enrolled as a medical student at Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), is likely to apply to take the 2020 state examination to qualify as a doctor.

The 31-year-old, identified as Park, was studying at Korea University in eastern Seoul eight years ago, when he was convicted of sexually assaulting a female student with two of his classmates in April 2011, and recording the attack.

The three were expelled from the school and the Supreme Court confirmed lower court sentences that sent them to prison ― Park received two-and-a-half years.

However, all three are said to have taken the university entrance exam again and have entered different medical schools. Park enrolled in Sungkyunkwan as a freshman in 2014.

The student council of the SKKU medical school raised a question on Park's admittance in 2016 after news of his enrollment spread through campus. However, the school then issued a statement that there was no law preventing a convicted sex offender from entering medical school.

Now, he is in his last year of the four-year regular course before taking the national exam.

The examination takes place every January. According to statistics released by the Korea Health Personnel Licensing Examination Institute, 94 percent of test-takers passed the test on average over the last five years.

There is no regulation banning a convicted sex offender from applying to take the state medical examination. According to the relevant laws, the grounds for disqualification are very limited, including clauses banning those repeatedly convicted of drug-related crimes and people with chronic psychiatric conditions that could affect their judgment in interactions with patients.

Even if a licensed doctor commits a crime, the license is not revoked unless they receive a prison term for a “medical-related” offence. So a doctor convicted of a sex crime can keep their license and continue to deal with patients, under current laws.

According to the National Police Agency, 184 violent crimes were committed by doctors between 2013 and 2017, and 177 of them, or 96 percent, were sexual in nature.

Ahn Gi-jong, head of the Korea Alliance of Patients Organizations, said being a doctor is a job that requires high moral standards as they deal with a patient's naked body.

“The political circles or medical associations should take the initiative in restricting those convicted of sex crimes from obtaining a medical license,” Ahn said.

Meanwhile, SKKU refused to comment on the issue or make an official announcement, saying this would breach its Personal Information Protection Act.