Unification Minister Lee In-young speaks during a National Assembly session, Monday. Yonhap

By Kim Rahn

Controversy is rising over a bill that aims to send South Korean medical staff to North Korea in the case of a medical emergency there.

Doctors' groups are criticizing the move, saying they are not "goods" that can be moved around according to government decisions, and the main opposition party is also slamming the administration for trying to "draft" doctors.

Rep. Shin Hyun-young of the Democratic Party of Korea speaks at the National Assembly in Seoul, in this May 14 photo. She submitted a bill recently to send South Korean medical personnel to North Korea in the case of a medical emergency. Korea Times file

The bill was submitted by Rep. Shin Hyun-young of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) in July to establish what she claims is a law on establishing inter-Korean medical exchanges and emergency support. According to the bill, if the North suffers a disaster that requires health or medical support, the South Korean government should make efforts to jointly deal with it and provide emergency aid such as medical personnel, equipment and medicine.

It gained attention recently, coupled with another bill submitted by Rep. Hwang Un-ha of the DPK last month to revise a law on disaster and safety control, which is aimed at adding "personnel," such as doctors, to the list of disaster-related "resources" managed by the authorities along with equipment, materials and facilities.

However, according to doctors' groups and the main opposition United Future Party (UFP), the two bills combined would provide the legal grounds for the administration to forcibly send medical workers to North Korea.

The backlash from doctors is especially strong because they have been in conflict with the government over a medical workforce reform plan.

Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon of the UFP asked Unification Minister Lee In-young during a National Assembly session, Monday, if he agreed with the bills.

Lee said sending medical personnel might be possible in principle if it was in line with medical cooperation. "But we need to see if forcible dispatch, like the level of a draft, would be allowed," he said, adding there should be discussions about the details on medical exchanges.

A group of doctors issued a statement Monday, calling on Shin and Hwang to withdraw the bills which "infringe on medical staffers' basic rights guaranteed by the Constitution."

UFP vice spokesman Hwang Kyu-hwan said the bills would take away the rights of medical staffers, who have led the fight against COVID-19, and send them forcibly to the North as if they were draftees. "North Korea has never apologized for its demolition of the inter-Korean liaison office. I don't know which people (between the North and South Korea) the government cares for and what policy priority the ruling bloc has," he said in a statement.

As the controversy intensified, Rep. Shin, who worked as doctor before joining politics, said her bill was not aimed at forcibly dispatching medical personnel to the North. "It is to provide the legal grounds for the government to support South Korean medical staffers who voluntarily want to provide humanitarian aid to the North," she said at a party meeting, Tuesday.

"If an infectious disease is rampant in North Korea, it will affect the South seriously as well. I'll be the first (to volunteer) if medical workers are needed to protect the Korean people from infectious diseases."

She added that similar bills had been submitted by members of the opposition parties in the 19th and 20th Assemblies.