The nation’s largest interest group of medical doctors is staggering over an internal feud on whether to acknowledge its newly-elected, hot-tempered leader, who has been accused of acts of aggression against the outgoing leadership.

According to the Korean Medical Association’s ethics committee, Roh Hwan-kyu, who was elected the new president last Sunday, was given a two-year suspension of his membership for egging his senior at the group’s general congress.

Roh will be able to appeal to the committee within 20 days from the notice, but if the punishment is confirmed, his election will be nullified and the runner-up, Na Hyun, will take the helm. The new term is scheduled to kick off on May 1.

Roh made headlines last December when he threw eggs and fermented anchovies at the current KMA president Kyung Man-ho, who has been indicted for seven charges including account fraud and embezzlement. In other meetings, members of the National Union of Korean Medical Doctors, which Roh led, showed up with hockey sticks and reportedly threatening their opponents.

The “terrorism” has shot Roh to instant fame and led him to win 839 votes out of the 1,574-strong electoral college to grab the leadership.

“People wanted change. The current leadership was busy maintaining amiable relations with the government and did not care about doctors’ interest. Members thought it is time to change and Roh’s aggression and passion whipped them,” said a member of a large hospital in Seoul.

The ethics committee’s decision caused a stir since Roh claimed the membership suspension was a political gambit by the inner-circle to oust an “outsider-president.”

“Kyung’s leadership has yet to give me any information about the KMA financial status and other works. It is a scheme to blast me out of the circle,” Roh told reporters. He said he will file for an injunction of the punishment with the court. However, he cancelled a press briefing scheduled on Friday morning, which was expected to reveal the turf war inside the KMA.

Affiliate groups of local doctors, mostly consisting of young doctors, defended Kyung. The doctors’ association of Daejeon, South Jeolla Province, Gimhae, Suwon and societies of dermatologists, family doctors, residents, primary doctors and gynecologists have released a statement supporting Roh.

“Roh was legitimately elected by the members. The KMA election commission also acknowledged his victory to be flawless,” said Yoo Tae-wook, chief of the Korean Association of Family Medicine. “It is against the democracy. It will trigger more antipathy from other members if the committee members do not retract the measure,” he added.

“What Roh had done at the general congress was clearly violence. It was wrong. But the members have given him a second chance,” a physician in Seoul told The Korea Herald.

The KMA nor its ethics committee have yet to make a comment about the issue.

“There is nothing to say,” a KMA staff worker said.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)