Han Seong-sook, nominee for prime minister, speaks to reporters, Monday, in front of her preparatory office in Jongno District, Seoul. Yonhap

Timing is often an unruly thing. Many pundits have stressed the importance of timing in life. What I mean to say is, it is high time that Korea usher in another woman into a higher government office. The nation produced its first female president, Park Geun-hye, who served from 2013 until her disgraceful removal from office in 2017, and its first female prime minister, Han Myeong-sook, who served in the Roh Moo-hyun administration from 2006-07.

Han Seong-sook, the current minister of SMEs and startups, has been tapped to become the next prime minister by President Lee Jae Myung. If she passes muster at the parliamentary hearings — which she did once before assuming the small and medium-sized enterprises ministership by promising, among other things, to sell off some of her real estate — she will become the second woman to become prime minister in Korean history.

As Korea shifts gears to go headlong into the era of artificial intelligence (AI), Han's earlier career at IT company Naver is key. Her........

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