The government began the process of suspending medical licenses of trainee doctors who have not returned to work since they resigned and walked out more than two weeks ago in protest of a planned expansion of medical school admissions quota.

The health ministry on Tuesday began sending out advance notices of medical license suspensions to doctors who were confirmed to have not returned, with the deliveries to continue on Wednesday.

The move comes as the ministry conducted on-site inspections of 100 major training hospitals on Monday and Tuesday to officially confirm the number of trainee doctors who had left their jobs.

The on-site inspections of 50 teaching hospitals, including the so-called "Big Five" general hospitals in Seoul, had found that seven-thousand-34 trainee doctors had left their posts.

The government is also considering filing police complaints against the instigators who led the mass resignations at various hospitals.