The police handed over more than 400 people to the prosecution on suspicion of organized misconduct by leaking the practical exam questions of the national medical examination.
According to the police on the 1st, the Gwangjin Police Station in Seoul transferred 448 examinees from five universities in Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam who took the practical exam of the national medical examination in 2023 to the prosecution on charges of obstructing official duties by deception. Considering that there were a total of 3,212 candidates for the practical exam in 2023, those transferred account for 13.9% of all examinees.
According to the police, examinees who took the exam earlier collected and restored the practical exam questions. They were found to have leaked the questions by sharing the collected questions with students who had not yet taken the exam through a secret chat room on Telegram. The practical exam is typically held over about two months from September to November, dividing examinees into groups of 60 to 70 per day.
Representatives of medical students from the five universities reportedly met in Busan in August 2023, a month before the exam, to plan the specifics of their criminal activities.
The police launched an investigation in November of the same year at the request of the National Medical Examination Board, which administers the exam. As a result of the investigation, six doctors who are former executives of the student council of Gyeongsang National University’s medical school were first sent to the prosecution last November. Most of the examinees who were recently transferred have obtained their medical licenses; however, it has been reported that many of them are currently unemployed or serving in the military due to participation in collective actions opposing an increase in the medical workforce.
The police plan to notify the Ministry of Health and Welfare of the situation regarding the misconduct in the practical exam and request the National Medical Examination Board to take administrative action against those involved.
There have been several instances in the past where students who took the practical exam earlier disseminated information about it in a retrospective format.