Proponents of the medical school enrollment quota increase have maintained that Korea needs to lower doctors’ income to an optimal level by expanding the number of physicians and avoiding falling into a “medical school black hole.”

The "medical school black hole" in Korea refers to a phenomenon where an excessive number of high-achieving high school graduates aspire to pursue medical education, leading to intense competition for limited spots in medical schools.

On Thursday, Rep. Shin Hyun-young of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea refuted the claim head-on, revealing her past salary statement as a physician.

Rep. Shin’s rebuttal targeted Professor Kim Yoon of the Seoul National University College of Medicine, who appeared as a panelist on MBC's "100 Minute Debate" Tuesday, supporting the government’s expansion of medical students.

During the debate, Professor Kim argued that a 34-year-old specialist who graduated from medical school, finished a resident course, and retired from the military earns an annual salary of 300-400 million won ($225,000 to $300,000). In comparison, a 35-year-old manager of a large company earns about 100 million won.

"The fundamental cause of the medical school frenzy is that doctors' income is overwhelmingly high compared to other professions," Kim said. "The fundamental way to solve the medical school concentration is to reduce doctors' income to a reasonable level through increasing medical school enrollment quota."

To counter this claim, Rep. Shin posted her tax receipts from 2019 on her Facebook account when she was a professor of family medicine at Myongji Hospital. At the time, Shin was a licensed physician and specialist with 13 years of experience.

In that year, when Shin was 38, her annual salary as a full professor at Myongji Hospital and Hanyang University was 89 million won, and 13 million won, totaling 130 million won, less than half or one-third of the 300-400 million won as claimed by Kim.

"I am disclosing my privacy so that people do not make wrong decisions about their careers based on false facts and excessive hopes of a guaranteed annual salary of 400 million won if they become a doctor, and so that we do not turn into a ‘doctor-is-everything society that consumes unnecessary social costs and leads to overheated competition," Shin said.

She went on to say, “As the medical community and the government are in conflict over the expansion of medical school students, I am concerned about the long-term effects of this on the strengthening of the private education market and the challenge of the national medical examination."