South Korea’s president meets leader of doctors’ strike [Video]

SEOUL, South Korea –

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol met the leader of a strike by thousands of junior doctors on Thursday and said that the government is open to talks about its contentious push to sharply increase medical school admissions.

The meeting was the first of its kind since more than 90 per cent of the country’s 13,000 trainee doctors walked off the job in February, disrupting hospital operations. But there was still no immediate report of a breakthrough after the meeting.

During a lengthy televised public address Monday, Yoon defended his plan to recruit 2,000 more medical students each year, from the current cap of 3,058. But he said his government remains open to talks if doctors come up with a unified proposal that gives logical reasons for their calls for a much smaller hike of the enrollment quota.

On Thursday, Yoon met Park Dan, head of an emergency committee for …