'Collective Resignation Residents' Must Wait 4 Years When Enlisting as Mandatory Officers

Military Manpower Administration, Survey on Enlistment Intentions of Officer Candidate Students

An enlistment intention survey will be conducted this year targeting medical officer candidates who resigned from residency training institutions in order to adjust the timing of military service fulfillment for resident doctors who have resigned.

Yonhap News

According to the Military Manpower Administration on the 14th, there are about 3,000 medical officer candidates who resigned from residency training institutions as of the end of October this year. If they all choose to enlist as military doctors at once, it would greatly exceed the usual annual military demand of about 1,000.

The Military Manpower Administration explained, "There may be cases where medical officer candidates have to wait up to four years before actual enlistment."

Accordingly, the Ministry of National Defense and the Military Manpower Administration plan to identify the preferred enlistment timing of each resigned resident doctor via mobile phone and mail from the 18th to the 29th, and then establish an enlistment plan for medical officers. The survey questions consist of confirmation of resignation from the residency training institution, intention to enlist in 2025, and preferred enlistment timing. There is also an item confirming that the respondent has been informed that enlistment schedules may be decided differently from their wishes and that they may have to wait up to four years. The Military Manpower Administration stated that this survey is not intended to adjust the number of enlistees.

Medical officer candidates are selected and managed by completing a prescribed course at training hospitals, etc., to stably secure active-duty officers in medical fields that are difficult to train within the military, and then appointed as officers. Resident doctors are registered as medical officer candidates. Medical officer candidates who have resigned from residency training institutions become subjects for medical officer candidate enlistment under the Military Service Act and cannot fulfill their military service as regular soldiers.

The Ministry of National Defense has classified the military occupational specialties of medical officer candidates, such as military doctors, military medical examination officers, and public health doctors, around the end of February every year and has had them enlist by mid-March.