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Last week, doctors in Seoul held rallies to protest the government's plan to increase the numbers
The South Korean government has ordered more than 1,000 young doctors to return to work after many staged walkouts in protest at plans to increase the number of doctors in the system.
More than 6,000 interns and residents resigned Monday, officials said.
South Korea has one of the lowest doctor-to-patient ratios among OECD countries, so the government wants to offer more internships in medical schools.
However, observers say that doctors are resisting what they see as stronger competition.
South Korea has a heavily privatized healthcare system, where most procedures are tied to insurance payments and more than 90% of hospitals are private.
“More doctors means more competition and lower income for them… so they are against the proposal to increase the supply of doctors,” said Prof. Soonman Kwon, a public health expert at Seoul National University.
He said young doctors opposed the measure because they were most likely to be affected early in their careers.
South Korea's Ministry of Health said on Monday that 1,630 doctors did not show up for work on Monday and a larger group of 6,415 young doctors were processing resignation letters. The organizers had promised to go on strike from Tuesday.
The action has raised significant concerns about the country's healthcare system this week. Several hospitals have switched to emergency plans.
The strike was planned by 2,700 junior doctors, who make up over a third of the active doctors in the country's five largest hospitals – and form a core of emergency department staff, Yonhap News reported.
There are also fears that this could trigger a major strike in the industry – the protests were supported by leading representative groups of the Korean Medical Residents Association (Daejeon Association) and the Korean Intern Resident Association.
Doctors in South Korea are already among the best paid in the world. OECD data from 2022 shows the average specialist in a public hospital earns almost $200,000 (£159,000) a year.