Park reached a "final and irreversible" agreement with Japan on comfort women, a euphemism for Korean women who were forced or lured into sexual slavery for Japanese military brothels before and during World War . She pushed for the state-owned history textbook, stoking condemnation that she tries to beautify her father's military dictatorship.

Labor market reforms increased irregular workers, reducing regular employees. Youth unemployment skyrocketed, triggering a phenomenon in which disenchanted young people call their country a "hell". Household debts surged to a fresh new high as they were encouraged to purchase new homes with borrowed money.

Park was under harsh criticism for her bungling of rescue operations in the 2014 Sewol ferry disaster that claimed over 300 lives, mostly high school students on a school trip to the Jeju Island. In 2015, failures to deal with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) made South Korea the most MERS-contagious country outside Saudi Arabia.

With the repeated policy failures and miscommunications with the public, the motion to impeach Park was passed on Dec 9 in the National Assembly. About three months later, the constitutional court ruled to permanently force her out from office.