A trainee doctor, who resigned in protest against the government's medical reform focused on increasing medical student enrollment, exits the Seoul Central District Court, Sept. 20, after undergoing an arrest warrant review on charges of compiling and posting on social media a blacklist of fellow doctors who refused to participate in a nationwide walkout by some 12,000 trainee doctors that began in February. Yonhap

A trainee doctor has been arrested for allegedly making and distributing a "blacklist" of colleagues who did not participate in a walkout by junior doctors protesting the government's medical reform plan, officials said Saturday.

The Seoul Central District Court issued an arrest warrant for the man, surnamed Jeong, Friday, on charges of creating the list of doctors who either did not joined their striking colleagues or returned to work, and distributing it online repeatedly.

The list, created in July, contains names, phone numbers and other personal information of non-striking doctors and was allegedly distributed with malicious intent in violation of the act on the punishment against stalking crimes.

It marked the first arrest of a doctor since February when a majority of South Korea's trainee doctors left their workplaces in the form of a mass resignation to protest the state plan to raise the medical school quota by around 2,000 over the next five years to address the shortage of doctors.

Jeong also submitted his resignation, and the court cited risks of him destroying evidence, the officials said.

South Korea has experienced a health care service crisis amid a serious staff shortage nationwide and no immediate breakthrough has been made.

Doctors have demanded that the government withdraw the quota increase plan altogether and discuss the issue with them from scratch, claiming that the reform will compromise the quality of medical education and ultimately the country's medical services.

But the government has said it is practically impossible to revisit the hike plan for next year, as the government already finalized a quota hike of some 1,500 students for 2025 and due college entrance procedures have already begun. (Yonhap)