Last week’s appointment of Rep. Park Seon-sook as secretary-general of the Democratic United Party would have drawn media attention in the past as a rare case of a female politician taking charge of daily affairs of the largest opposition party.

But it was barely covered by the press, which have more than enough women political leaders to keep an eye on.

The leaders of three major parties are all women: Rep. Park Geun-hye of the ruling Saenuri Party, the DUP’s Han Myeong-sook and Rep. Lee Jung-hee and former lawmaker Shim Sang-jung, who co-head the far-left splinter Unified Progressive Party.

Han, who became the country’s first female prime minister in 2006, met Park in January after being elected DUP leader, with the photo of their making eye contact splashed across the front pages of all newspapers. They pledged joint efforts to make the public happy as female leaders but have since become estranged amid intensifying election politics.

Han and Lee completed the negotiation earlier this month to field a joint set of candidates representing the opposition bloc for the April general elections.

By Kim Kyung-ho (khkim@heraldcorp.com)