The government said Monday that it would conduct an internal review of the Korean Medical Association (KMA)'s emergency committee's proposal to re-discuss increasing the number of medical students after a one-year moratorium.

The government also said that although the enrollment quota has been allocated to each medical school, it could physically revise the allotted quota until the recruitment guidelines for new students are finalized.

Second Vice Minister of Health and Welfare Park Min-soo said so at a regular briefing of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters to Cope with Doctors’ Collective Action.

On Sunday, the KMA’s emergency committee proposed that the government postpone increasing the medical school enrollment quota for a year and re-discuss the issue later.

"As stated in the presidential discourse, we can discuss it openly if scientific and reasonable evidence is presented. The medical community has yet to present a scientific basis for the one-year moratorium on the increase in medical students, and we understand it to mean, 'Let's stop the discussion for a while and have further discussions later,” Park said. “We will have an internal review of the proposal,”

However, he added, it is difficult to say conclusively whether the government can accept the proposal.

Regarding whether the government can adjust the 2,000 annual enrollment increase size after it allocated the increased quota to each medical school, Park said it is “not impossible.”

"Since we have already announced new admission quotas for medical schools, it is difficult to reverse them considering the confusion," Park said. “However, what is clear is that it is not physically impossible to make changes until the recruitment guidelines for new students are set."