Residents who did not serve in the military must enlist by March next year if discharged from the hospital

Mandatory Officer Candidates Must Enlist on the Nearest Available Date Upon Retirement
Military Manpower Administration Requires Submission of Recommendation Letter for Approval if Overseas Travel is Requested

It has been revealed that medical residents who have not completed their military service and are dismissed from the hospitals where they were training must enlist as military medical officers or public health doctors in March of the following year.

On the 21st, after the resignation letters were submitted by residents nationwide, including those at the Big 5 hospitals, work stoppages continued. Visitors at a large hospital in Seoul are asking medical staff about consultation hours. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

According to the Enforcement Decree of the Military Service Act on the 25th, individuals who have been transferred to become military medical officer candidates must enlist on the nearest enlistment date if they change their training institution or specialty without the permission of the Military Manpower Administration commissioner or if they are dismissed from the training institution. When a resignation letter is accepted, the hospital director must notify the local Military Manpower Administration commissioner within 14 days, after which the enlistment procedure proceeds.

Considering that the Ministry of National Defense classifies military medical officer candidates subject to enlistment every February and that enlistment as military medical officers or public health doctors occurs in March of the same year, medical residents who are currently dismissed must enlist in March of next year. According to the Military Service Act, military medical officer candidates cannot voluntarily give up this status midway, and once they become military medical officers, they must serve for 38 months. Until now, military medical officer candidates in the intern and resident courses have enlisted after completing their residency training.

However, since the Military Manpower Administration is aware that the Ministry of Health and Welfare has issued an order to prohibit the acceptance of collective resignation letters at each training hospital, it has stated that it will not immediately decide on the enlistment of the residents.

A Military Manpower Administration official said, "There is a difference between merely submitting a resignation letter and having it accepted and processed as a dismissal," adding, "Since the Ministry of Health and Welfare has issued a work commencement order to the residents, we need to observe the situation further to determine whether they should be considered enlistment subjects."

Meanwhile, in a recent official letter sent to local offices, the Military Manpower Administration instructed that if individuals who submitted resignation letters as part of collective action and became subjects of the work commencement order apply for overseas travel permission, they must obtain a recommendation letter from their affiliated institution’s head, just like residents who are undergoing normal training. All South Korean men who have not fulfilled their military service obligations must obtain approval from the Military Manpower Administration before traveling abroad. In any case, if a medical resident who has not completed military service applies for overseas travel permission without submitting a recommendation letter, the permission should be withheld and the headquarters must be immediately notified.

Regarding this, the Emergency Response Committee of the Korean Medical Association immediately protested, saying, "The Military Manpower Administration has sent an official letter that is tantamount to a travel ban order, which is usually imposed only on serious criminals," and added, "The government is equating doctors with violent criminals."