South Korea needs more doctors. A massive strike shows it won’t be easy.

SEOUL — Kim Sung Ju remembers sitting in his office last week in a state of dismay as he watched thousands of medical interns and resident doctors walk out on television.

“I received a call from a dying cancer patient the other day,” Kim, 61, said. “... He told me his treatment appointment was being delayed indefinitely.” Kim, head of the Korean Cancer Patients Rights Council, has been battling esophageal cancer himself for nearly a decade.