The proportion of female executives at South Korea's major companies came to 7 percent in the first quarter of 2023 following last year's implementation of a related law, a corporate tracker said Tuesday.

The number of female executives at 349 out of the country's top 500 firms by sales reached 997 at end-March, accounting for 6.8 percent of the total 14,718, according to the Leaders Index.

The proportion was up 0.5 percentage point from a year earlier and 1.7 times the tally for the first quarter of 2019.

Yet, nearly 28 percent of the 349 companies, or 98, had no female executives.

The number of outside directors climbed 9.8 percent on-year to 212 over the one-year period, while that of internal directors edged up two to 30.

The gain in the number of women with C-suite positions came as a revised capital market law came into effect in August last year, putting restrictions on male-dominated boards of firms with assets of 2 trillion won ($1.51 billion) or more.

Gaming firm Krafton Inc. had the highest proportion of female executives with 57.1 percent, with them occupying four out of seven C-suite seats.

Kakao, the operator of the popular mobile messenger KakaoTalk, came next with 50 percent (three out of six), trailed by the state-run Korea Gas Corp. with 45.5 percent (five out 11) and top refiner SK Innovation Co. with 42.9 percent (three out of seven). (Yonhap)