A person reads the government's back-to-work order at a hospital in the southeastern city of Daegu, March 12. Yonhap

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has asked the Korean government to express its position on a local medical group's recent request for the United Nations agency to intervene in its back-to-work order for striking trainee doctors, the labor ministry said Friday.

The development came after the ILO had earlier dismissed an intervention request from the Korean Intern and Resident Association (KIRA), which represents the nation's medical residents and interns who went on strike in late February to protest the government's plan to sharply increase the medical school admissions.

The KIRA sent a letter to the ILO on March 13, requesting its intervention in Seoul's back-to-work order for striking junior doctors which, it said, was in violation of the Forced Labor Convention. The convention, dubbed "ILO Protocol 29," defines forced labor as any labor or service that a person is forced to provide under threat of punishment.

The ILO dismissed the KIRA's request two days later, saying the association cannot be seen as a labor union eligible for the process. Then the KIRA again asked the ILO for intervention on March 15, attaching an explanation that it is the only organization representing the striking trainee doctors.

The ILO's request for opinion was delivered to the government Thursday, the labor ministry said.

The ministry said it will convey an opinion to the effect that the back-to-work order for striking doctors was a legitimate measure to protect people's lives and is an exception to the ILO convention. (Yonhap)