The quota for medical school admissions will expand by two-thousand for the 2025 academic year.

The health ministry announced the decision to raise the quota to five-thousand-58 for the first time since 2006, when it was set at three-thousand-58, after a session of its policy review committee on Tuesday.

Presiding over a Cabinet meeting earlier in the day, President Yoon Suk Yeol said an estimated 15-thousand more doctors will be needed by 2035 amid the rapidly aging society, stressing that increasing the medical workforce is a pressing task that can no longer be delayed.

The Korean Medical Association had previously announced that it would stage a general strike should the government push ahead with the quota expansion without consulting with the medical community.