Anchor: The government and the nation's doctors are failing to find a breakthrough to hold negotiations over the government's controversial plan to increase the number of doctors in the nation. In the prolonged absence of trainee doctors who left their jobs in protest, an increasing number of medical school professors are handing in their resignations as the government says it will push ahead with plans to increase medical school admissions by two thousand, starting from next year.  
Our Bae Joo-yon has more. 

Report: Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo warned there will be corresponding measures to a possible all-out strike by doctors, which newly-elected head of the Korean Medical Association(KMA) Lim Hyun-taek brought up the previous day.

After winning the KMA election, the new leader of the nation's doctors' group threatened to stage a general strike should any trainee doctor, medical school student or professor suffer from license suspensions or lawsuits.

The vice health minister said the KMA is vowing to be above the law and that there is no change in the government’s strict stance to deal with any illegal action.

The government is calling on the doctors to engage in dialogue but the two sides are failing to find a breakthrough even to hold negotiations. 

As medical school professors across the nation continue to submit their resignations for the third day on Wednesday, the government is expediting follow-up measures to expand med schools’ admission quota, launching a survey on demand for teachers and teaching equipment in schools that will accept more students. 

The KMA has called on President Yoon Suk Yeol to meet trainee doctors in person and resolve the situation in order to bring an end to the prolonged collective action. 

Major general hospitals have had to shut down part of their wards as they struggle with increasing financial losses in the prolonged absence of trainee doctors, who walked off the job in protest of the government's plan to increase the number of doctors in the nation.

Over 90 percent of the nation's trainee doctors have not been at work for more than a month amid the government's push to increase the medical school admissions quota by two thousand from next year. 
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.