First lady Kim Keon Hee traveled to the southern county of Goheung on Tuesday to meet with a group of lepers at a hospital known for treating the patients.

Kim visited Sorokdo National Hospital in Goheung, 328 kilometers south of Seoul, and comforted the patients while also encouraging the medical staff, according to the presidential office.

Sorokdo is the name of the island where the hospital is located. Two Austrian nurses -- Marianne Stoger and Margaritha Pissarek -- spent 43 years on the island looking after lepers before returning to their home country in 2005. Pissarek died last September.

The first lady looked around a treatment room previously used by the two nurses and reflected on their noble spirit, the presidential office said.

She also presented "yuja," or citron, preserves she made on an earlier visit to a yuja farm to the patients and the medical staff.

Before heading to the hospital, the first lady stopped at a traditional market in Suncheon, 286 km south of Seoul, where she met with local residents and merchants and purchased local seafood and seasonal produce.