President Park Geun-hye placed 11th on Forbes’ list of the world’s 100 most powerful women this year.

It is the first time Park has made it onto the annual list by the U.S. economic magazine. She is also the only Korean on the roster.

Forbes introduced the 61-year-old Park as South Korea’s first female president, having been elected with Korea’s highest turnout rate in 15 years.

“This is her second ‘term’ in the presidential office. Her father, Park Chung-hee, was president for 18 years, and at age 22 she became de facto first lady after her mother was killed by a bullet intended for her husband,” Forbes said.

Park presides over the world’s 15th-largest GDP at $1.15 trillion but its export economy is being challenged by China and Japan as well as international anxiety over North Korean brinksmanship on the Korean Peninsula, it said.

North Korea has blamed her “venomous swish of skirt” for the tensions between the two countries, Forbes added.

The top spot was taken by German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the third consecutive year. Merkel has earned the top spot for seven of the past 10 years from 2006.

She was followed by Brazil’s President Dilma Rouseff.

The top five were completed with Melinda Gates, who co-chairs the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with her billionaire philanthropist husband, U.S. first lady Michelle Obama and former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

Among 10 most powerful women were Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg; International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde; U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano; Indian National Congress President Sonia Gandhi; and PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi.

By Chun Sung-woo (swchun@heraldcorp.com)