Yoon to Meet with Resident Representative Park Dan at 2 PM... Presidential Office "Listening to Demands" (Comprehensive)

President Yoon Expresses Willingness to Dialogue After National Address
Park Dan: "No Change in the Core of the Demands"

President Yoon Suk-yeol and Park Dan, the Emergency Response Committee Chair of the Korean Intern Resident Association, have arranged a meeting. The plan is to hear the demands that the interns and residents have been collectively making to the government for over 40 days through their representative, Chair Park.

According to the presidential office and the medical community on the 4th, President Yoon will meet with Chair Park at 2 p.m. at the Yongsan Presidential Office. A presidential office official explained, "This meeting was arranged for President Yoon to listen to the demands of the interns and residents presented by Chair Park."

Since his national address on the 1st, President Yoon has expressed willingness to engage in dialogue with the medical community, stating that he would not insist on maintaining the current scale of medical school admissions and that policy changes could be made if medical organizations present a unified plan based on scientific evidence.

On the 2nd, President Yoon also proposed dialogue, saying, "There are many medical organizations, but I want to meet directly with the interns and residents who are the parties involved in the collective action to hear their stories." It was also reported that during the senior secretaries meeting he chaired the previous day, he said, "It doesn't matter if Chair Park comes alone or with a few interns and residents. I will meet unconditionally and just listen."

President Yoon Suk-yeol is visiting Yuseong Sun Hospital in Yuseong District, Daejeon on the 1st and moving to the surgery observation room together with the hospital director.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

Chair Park also announced internally on the same day, "I will meet with President Yoon Suk-yeol today," adding, "This is a matter decided after sufficient meetings." He explained that he is aware of the concerns among interns and residents regarding the meeting with the president. While acknowledging, "There must be many concerns," he added, "I judged that it is worth trying to directly convey the interns' and residents' position and attempt a resolution at least once before the general election."

He further stated, "There has been no change in the tone of the statement and demands issued on February 20," and added, "The final decision will be made through a general vote."

The demands of the interns and residents include ▲ complete withdrawal of medical school admission increases and the essential medical package ▲ establishment of a scientific physician supply and demand forecasting organization ▲ expansion of specialist recruitment at training hospitals ▲ legal burden relief for unavoidable medical accidents ▲ improvement of training environments for interns and residents ▲ full withdrawal of unfair administrative orders targeting interns and residents ▲ complete abolition of work commencement orders.

The meeting between President Yoon and the interns and residents was also requested by the medical community. The Emergency Response Committee of the Korean Medical Association evaluated the possibility of a meeting between the president and the interns and residents positively, saying, "We expect it positively," and "It is a welcome development that the president and interns and residents will meet directly, as proposed by the KMA Emergency Response Committee last week."

On the afternoon of the 9th, when the closed general meeting of the National Association of Medical School Professors (Jeonui Gyohyeop) was held, Park Dan, the emergency committee chairman of the Korean Intern Resident Association (Daejeonhyeop), hurriedly moved upon seeing the press while leaving a building at a restaurant in Seoul.
[Image source=Yonhap News]