Sajik Residents: "Decision on Enlistment Timing Should Be Ours... Government Must Allow Enlistment"

Protesting Near the Ministry of National Defense in Yongsan-gu, Seoul
Resigned Medical Residents Demand Immediate Enlistment as Promised
Concerns Over Government’s Sudden Policy Change and Impact on Regional Healthcare

Following the government's revision of the directive, medical residents who resigned without completing their military service and whose enlistment has been postponed held a rally to demand enlistment.

On the 22nd, Yonhap News reported that about 100 medical residents who resigned without completing military service gathered near the Ministry of National Defense in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, holding a rally claiming that the government is arbitrarily changing the law and insisting, "We must be enlisted as originally pledged in the Military Officer Candidate Oath."

Song Ha-yoon, a resigned medical resident who spoke on behalf of the group, said, "The government has been using the law to exploit young medical residents at will," adding, "They made us sign documents stating that we must enlist immediately upon resignation, but now they are preventing us from enlisting right after resignation."

Earlier, the Ministry of National Defense announced a legislative notice for the revision of the "Directive on the Selection and Enlistment of Medical and Veterinary Officers," which classifies military officer candidates waiting for enlistment who have not been selected as military doctors or public health doctors (Gongbo-ui) as 'active duty unselected' for management purposes.

Originally, about 1,000 military officer candidates fulfill their annual military service obligation. Each year, 600 to 700 of these candidates are selected as military doctors, while the remaining 200 to 300 are assigned to supplementary service and serve as public health doctors in regional medical institutions. However, due to the mass resignation of medical residents, the number of enlistment candidates this year has increased more than threefold, and these candidates will be selected as military doctors or public health doctors sequentially over the next four years.

Some of the resigned medical residents who have not completed military service demand the option to serve as enlisted soldiers instead of as military doctors (active duty officers) or public health doctors (supplementary service), but the Ministry of National Defense maintains that it cannot accept such claims.

On the 22nd, Song Ha-yoon, a resident doctor who resigned, is speaking at the 'Protest Against the Revision of the Directive' held in front of the Ministry of National Defense. Photo by Yonhap News

Song pointed out, "According to the Ministry of National Defense directive, if there is an excess number of medical officers, the principle is to assign those waiting for enlistment to supplementary service such as public health doctors, not to keep them waiting for enlistment. Changing this undermines legal stability," adding, "Supplementary service enlistment should be allowed based on the existing (military officer candidate) oath, and if the revised directive is to be applied, a new oath must be obtained."

Furthermore, Song relayed the words of a current public health doctor, saying, "The government suddenly revised the directive at a time when the number of resigned medical residents hoping to enlist this year exceeds 2,000, and they say they will only select 250 public health doctors. They aimed to select 904 in the year before last and 642 last year, so do they really believe that regional medical care can be maintained normally by selecting only 250 public health doctors this year?"

He continued, "Thousands of doctors are waiting to serve in the military, but the government is wasting their lives and planning to send them back to training hospitals, thereby destroying regional medical care with the sole goal of doing so," criticizing, "They once threatened to send us to the military, and now they threaten not to let us go, showing a complete lack of consistency."

Jeong Yeon-wook, a medical resident who resigned from Seoul Asan Hospital, lamented, "The document I received from the Military Manpower Administration on June 18 last year clearly stated in bold letters that I would be enlisted in 2025 due to the suspension of training," adding, "Since it was an official document from an administrative agency, I signed a contract with my new workplace until March this year and settled other matters before entering the training camp."

They argued, "Medical residents who resigned and are about to enlist face a situation where active duty enlistment is impossible, and they must wait indefinitely for up to four years," adding, "If the Ministry of National Defense takes away the authority to decide enlistment timing, it will not only infringe on individual basic rights but also likely exacerbate the essential medical service gap."