Anchor: The government has decided to issue an order for doctors in private practice to operate their clinics next Tuesday when the Korean Medical Association (KMA) plans to launch an all-out collective action. As for the KMA, the government plans to conduct a legal review to determine whether the association has violated the Fair Trade Act. 
Our Bae Joo-yon has more. 

Report: The government has decided to respond to a plan by the Korean Medical Association (KMA) to launch an all-out collective action next Tuesday with administrative orders. 

During a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters on Monday, the government decided to have local governments order doctors in private practice under their jurisdiction to operate their clinics on the day of the planned walkout. 

Doctors still planning to proceed with the group action will be required to report to their local governments of their intention by Thursday.

As for the KMA, the government plans to conduct a legal review to determine whether the association has violated the Fair Trade Act. 

Health minister Cho Kyoo-hong said the medical community’s refusal to provide patient treatment is an illegal act that cannot, by any means, be tolerated and one that threatens the right to life of the people and patients.  

The government denounced the planned walkout as an act of abandoning the ethical and professional obligation of a doctor.

However, the government was quick to add that it will continue to persuade the medical community and communicate with it in order to prevent a large-scale strike.  

The medical community, meanwhile, remains steadfast and continues to call on the government to reconsider its plan to expand next year’s admissions quota of medical schools, stressing that whether the strike will actually take place depends on whether the government changes its position.  

Some observers say that the planned collective action is unlikely to have a significant impact, citing that a walkout by the medical community in 2020 saw the participation of less than ten percent by doctors in private practice. 
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.