Korean Medical Association leaders cleared of inciting mass resident resignations after 2-year probe

Current and former leaders of the Korean Medical Association have been cleared of charges that they incited medical residents to stage a mass walkout against the Yoon Suk Yeol administration's medical school enrollment expansion policy, more than two years after the case began. Prosecutors said there was insufficient evidence that KMA leaders had directly ordered residents to resign or instigated the collective resignations.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office's Public Investigation Unit 3, led by chief prosecutor Kim Jeong-ok, on Friday dropped charges against 19 people, including four KMA leaders: former KMA President Joo Su-ho, current President Kim Taek-woo and standing Vice President Park Myeong-ha. They had been referred on charges of obstruction of business and violations of the Medical Service Act.

The suspects had been accused of encouraging residents to submit resignation letters and providing legal support to facilitate collective action after the Yoon administration announced in 2024 that it would expand medical school enrollment by 2,000 seats.

As residents left their training hospitals — causing surgeries and consultations to be delayed and deepening a healthcare vacuum — the Ministry of Health and Welfare filed a complaint with police against the current and former KMA leaders in February 2024. Police concluded that their actions had obstructed operations at training hospitals and referred the case to prosecutors without detention in May last year. Prosecutors requested supplementary investigation once, and police forwarded the case again after conducting additional inquiries.

Prosecutors ultimately found no confirmed evidence that KMA leaders had directly instructed residents to resign. Residents who had submitted resignation letters also told investigators that their decisions had been voluntary and that no collective resolution to resign had been made.

However, some individuals involved in other unlawful conduct that emerged during the 2024 doctor-government dispute were indicted. In total, 10 people were summarily indicted in connection with the dispute.

Former KMA President Lim Hyeon-taek was cleared of the allegation that he had incited the residents' collective action, but was summarily indicted on charges of violating the Act on Collection and Use of Donations in connection with his support for residents who had resigned.

Seven people who compiled and circulated a so-called blacklist of doctors and medical students who did not join the collective action were also summarily indicted on charges of violating the Stalking Punishment Act.

By contrast, Ki Dong-hun, head of Medistaff — an online community for doctors and medical students — who had been suspected of aiding the posting of the blacklist, was cleared of charges.

A public health doctor suspected of leaking a list of public health physicians dispatched to medical institutions was also not indicted. Prosecutors determined it was difficult to establish intent to leak, finding that the doctor had received the dispatch list via mobile phone from a supervising civil servant and then shared it with fellow public health doctors for the purpose of exchanging information.