Currently, there’s a cap of 3,058 medical students a year. The government wants to add 2,000 more medical students starting in 2025, citing South Korea’s doctor-to-population ratio that it says is one of the lowest in the developed world.

But doctors say the plan can’t address a chronic shortage of physicians in rural areas and in essential yet low-paying specialties because newly recruited students would also want to work in the capital region and in high-paying fields like plastic surgery and dermatology.

The striking junior doctors have accused the government of ignoring their harsh conditions — working more than 80 hours per week at close to a minimum wage. But post-residency doctors are among the best-paid professionals in South Korea.

Some critics say the strikers simply worry that the added competition from more doctors would lead to lower incomes in the future.