The government will establish four additional publicly run medical centers for children to compensate for a lack of pediatricians.

In a briefing to President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday, health minister Cho Kyoo-hong explained the expansion, which is part of the ministry’s plan to improve the nation's health care for children as the number of pediatricians drop due to the chronic birthrate decline and frozen salaries.

The four new centers will be built in regions that have no access to the existing ten locations, which will receive state subsidies for facilities and equipment as well as compensation for incurred losses.

The government will include critical and pediatric emergency capacity as an evaluation category when designating a medical facility as a high-level general hospital.

Five hospitals outside the capital area will be matched with a cancer-treating facility in the capital area to provide services to pediatric cancer patients within their region.