President Lee Jae Myung Holds Hands with Marginalized and Abandoned Hansen's Disease Patients

First Official Visit to Sorokdo in Goheung After Presidential Election
First Lady Kim Hye Kyung Promised, "I Will Bring the President to Sorokdo"
Visit Interpreted as a Message of Political Integration Beyond Conservative and Progressive Divides

Sorokdo Panorama

As President Lee Jae Myung visited Sorokdo for his first official schedule in the Honam region since his election, public interest in Sorokdo has also increased significantly.

According to Jeollanam-do and other sources on the 25th, President Lee made a surprise visit to Sorokdo in Goheung, Jeollanam-do at around 11:05 a.m. that day. This visit to Sorokdo was an unofficial event that took place before President Lee attended the 'Gwangju Citizens and Jeollanam-do Residents Town Hall Meeting' held at the National Asia Culture Center in Gwangju at 2:30 p.m. on the same day.

President Lee reportedly stayed for more than an hour, meeting with the medical staff of the National Sorokdo Hospital and Hansen's disease patients, offering encouragement and comfort.

On May 27, before the presidential election, First Lady Kim Hye Kyung also visited Sorokdo and spent precious time meeting with Hansen's disease patients. At that time, First Lady Kim was reported to have promised, "I will definitely return with the President after the election is over."

With the President and First Lady both visiting Sorokdo about a month apart, the island is once again in the national spotlight, not only in the local region but across the country.

Sorokdo is regarded as a place that holds the pain of the most marginalized people in Korean history. Located in Doyang-eup, Goheung-gun, Jeollanam-do, Sorokdo was used as a settlement for Hansen's disease patients. In the past, Hansen's disease was called leprosy or "mundungbyeong" in Korea, and due to a lack of medical information, it was often mistaken for a contagious disease, leading to a culture of shunning those affected.

After the Japanese colonial period began to enforce a policy of 'Hansen's patient internment,' the oppression of Hansen's disease patients intensified, and Sorokdo became a prison-like place where they were confined.

Until the opening of Sorok Bridge in 2009, which connects Nokdong and Sorokdo, access for outsiders was virtually prohibited. As the years of suffering for Hansen's disease patients, who were thoroughly abandoned by society, grew longer, the pain associated with Sorokdo deepened as well.

President Lee Jae Myung. Photo by Yonhap News

Although there were efforts by figures such as First Lady Yuk Young Soo and some others in Korea to stand with Hansen's disease patients on Sorokdo, these moments of attention were brief, and both Sorokdo and its residents continued to be marginalized.

Perhaps for this reason, to this day, the shadow of respect and gratitude toward First Lady Yuk Young Soo remains strong on Sorokdo. Sorokdo has become a symbolic space carrying a political message, as it is almost the only conservative stronghold in Jeollanam-do. This is why, in past elections, conservative candidates have overwhelmingly won on the island.

In the 21st presidential election, President Lee lost to his competitor, Kim Moon Soo of the People Power Party, by 10 votes (Lee Jae Myung 108 votes (45.2%)·Kim Moon Soo 118 votes (49.4%)). In the previous 20th presidential election, President Lee received 130 out of 355 votes (36.6%), falling far behind then-candidate Yoon Suk Yeol (207 votes, 58.3%).

Looking further back, in previous elections, conservative party candidates such as Lee Myung Bak, Park Geun Hye, and Hong Jun Pyo all outperformed progressive candidates.

President Lee's visit to Sorokdo is analyzed as reflecting his political philosophy that the state must reach out to comfort the suffering of marginalized groups, as well as his intention to pursue politics of integration that transcend the divide between progressives and conservatives.

A local political figure commented, "I believe this visit to Sorokdo clearly conveys the message of pursuing politics without discrimination. Considering that President Lee has actively engaged with regional issues such as the relocation of the Gwangju military airport, which he has addressed since the election campaign, less than a month after being elected, we can infer how much attention he pays to local matters."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.