South Korea’s government on Thursday said it would start suspending the licences of striking junior doctors next week.

Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo made the comments during a press briefing as he repeated demands for the doctors to return to work immediately.

More than 90 percent of the country’s 13,000 medical interns and residents have been on strike for about a month to protest the government’s plan to sharply increase medical school admissions.

Their strikes have caused hundreds of cancelled surgeries and other treatments at hospitals.

The government has been taking a series of administrative steps to suspend their licences after they missed a government deadline at the end of February to return to work.

Officials said the recruitment plan was aimed at adding more doctors to prepare for South Korea’s rapidly aging population in a country whose doctor-to-population ratio is one of the lowest in the developed world.

But doctors said schools cannot handle an abrupt, steep increase in students, and that it would ultimately undermine the country’s medical services.

The striking junior doctors account for less than 10 percent of South Korea’s 140,000 doctors, but in some major hospitals, they represent more than 30 percent of the doctors, assisting senior staff during surgeries and dealing with inpatients while training. (AP)