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Lee, first lady comfort people with leprosy in visit to hospital on Sorok Island

June 25, 2025

President Lee Jae Myung and first lady Kim Hea Kyung on Wednesday paid a visit to a hospital for people with leprosy on the remote island of Sorok and comforted patients there, the presidential office said.

Lee encouraged people with leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, and pledged to step up efforts to eliminate social discrimination against them, presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said in a written briefing.

It marked his first visit to the facility since taking office earlier this month.

During the visit, Lee also expressed appreciation for the dedication of medical workers and religious volunteers who have long served the isolated community.

The visit followed a campaign pledge made by Kim last month, in which she promised that Lee would return to Sorok Island if elected president.

“I decided to come here because I heard how hard you are working under difficult circumstances,” Lee was quoted as saying.

Residents also shared the painful history of Sorok Island, which became home to a segregated leper colony established under Japanese colonial rule in the early 1900s, where forced isolation and bans on childbirth were once imposed.