President Yoon Suk Yeol and the head of the nation’s trainee doctors’ group have sat down for a  meeting amid the ongoing dispute over the government’s medical reform plan. 

The two sides are said to be holding a meeting this Thursday afternoon, two days after the presidential office announced Yoon's intentions to meet the trainee doctors in person. 

In an internal notice to member doctors prior to the meeting, Park Dan, emergency committee chief of the Korean Intern Resident Association, stated that there is no change in the trainee doctors’ position demanding the government scrap its plan to increase the medical school admissions quota by two thousand seats a year.  

Park said in the message that he concluded that it is worth delivering the doctors’ position directly to the president and to try to resolve the issue ahead of the April 10 general elections.  
 
As the government pushed ahead with its planned hike in medical school admissions, Park and some 90 percent of the nation’s trainee doctors submitted their resignations in protest of the move in February and they have not yet returned to work.

The trainee doctors association is expected to finalize its stance on the matter in a vote of its members after Park's meeting with the president. 

Yoon on Monday delivered a televised address and reaffirmed his determination to expand the number of doctors in the nation. However, he left room for dialogue, urging doctors to come up with a unified alternative proposal if they wish to reduce the medical school admissions quota in question.