The circuit was announced on 2 September 2009 with construction beginning shortly after. German circuit designer Hermann Tilke was commissioned for the layout, producing a hybrid design that blends a conventional permanent section with a temporary street-circuit portion running along the harbour side of the province. The temporary section was conceived to allow spectators on a promenade and aboard yachts to view the action, while shops, restaurants, and exhibition spaces in the adjacent city area doubled as pit lane infrastructure during Grand Prix weekends.
Construction was plagued by delays. Excessive rainfall hampered soil improvement works, pushing completion well past the scheduled July 2010 deadline. By October 2010 certain facilities remained unfinished and the track surface had only received its first asphalt layer. The FIA technical inspection, originally planned for 28 September, was repeatedly postponed and ultimately took place on 11 October — just eleven days before the first practice session. FIA race director Charlie Whiting nonetheless described the circuit as satisfactory and authorised the mandatory licence to be issued through the Korea Automobile Racing Association.
A preview event called Circuit Run 2010 was staged on 4 September 2010, with Karun Chandhok driving a Red Bull Racing Formula 1 show car fitted with a V10 Renault engine for 14 demonstration laps in front of approximately 4,000 spectators.
The 2010 layout begins with a double left-hander, with the first corner taken in second gear before drivers accelerate through the second turn and onto a 1.160 km main straight. The straight feeds into the slowest point on the circuit, a tight second-gear right-hand bend. A shorter straight then leads into a section of close switchbacks at turns four, five, and six, each requiring second gear. The circuit then opens into a sequence of fast fifth-gear bends before braking for turn ten, a tight right-hander approached on a downward-sloping incline. The final sector adopts the character of a street circuit, threading through a labyrinth of left and right-hand bends to turn seventeen, a long blind right-hander enclosed by walls. The lap concludes with a left-hand kink returning onto the main straight.
The pit lane entry and exit were immediate sources of controversy at the circuit's debut. The pit lane entry in 2010 sat directly on the racing line at the exit of a corner taken at approximately 240 km/h, meaning cars slowing to pit were still on the line at much reduced speeds. Robert Kubica flagged the danger before racing began, and Jarno Trulli expressed concern about being struck from behind. The wall at turn seventeen was moved back for 2011 to improve visibility at the pit entry zone.
The pit lane exit was equally criticised, feeding onto the outside of turn one. Although off the main racing line, any car running wide under braking risked colliding with a car rejoining. That scenario materialised during practice for the 2011 Korean Grand Prix when Nico Rosberg ran wide and struck Jaime Alguersuari's Toro Rosso. Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn and Red Bull principal Christian Horner both condemned the exit design. The FIA installed traffic lights at the pit lane exit to warn drivers of approaching race traffic. For the 2013 Grand Prix the exit was extended around the outside of turns one and two as originally planned, though the quality of the resurfacing work through the run-off drainage area was criticised by multiple drivers for its uneven finish.
The inaugural Korean Grand Prix was held on 24 October 2010, the seventeenth round of a nineteen-event season. The circuit was contracted for an initial seven-year term with a five-year option extending potentially to 2021. In practice the race ran only four editions — 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013 — before disappearing from the Formula One calendar. The venue's capacity was listed at 135,000 spectators, though attendance never approached that figure.
The 2012 FIA GT1 World Championship had the Korea International Circuit on its provisional calendar, but the round was subsequently removed. Plans for an exhibition Super GT round in 2013 also fell through.
By 2015 the facility had been reduced to hosting local series at modest attendance levels, having delivered far fewer events and far lower spectator numbers than the projections that justified the $264 million public outlay. Critics labelled the project a debacle, pointing to optimistic assumptions about tourism, accommodation infrastructure, and fan appetite for Formula One in a market without deep motorsport roots.
Subsequent events held at the circuit include the Superrace Championship, the Audi R8 LMS Cup, Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia, the China Touring Car Championship, the TCR Asia Series, and the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia, among others. The circuit remains operational as a regional motorsport venue, though its scale and ambition vastly exceed the events it now regularly hosts.
The Korea International Circuit stands as one of the most prominent examples of Tilke-era Formula One venue construction that prioritised spectacle and commercial agreements over the organic development of a local motorsport audience — a pattern that drew recurring criticism as the sport expanded into new markets during the 2000s and 2010s.