The Seoul Central District Court issued a warrant to arrest Park on charges of bribery, abuse of authority, coercion, and leaking government secrets, after a marathon court hearing the previous day.
"It is justifiable and necessary to arrest (Park) as key charges were justified and there is risk of evidence being destroyed," the court said in a statement.
Park will immediately be taken from the prosecutor's office where she has been awaiting the decision into custody in a detention centre near Seoul.
Looking grim-faced and pale, Park ignored a barrage of press flashbulbs and did not speak when she arrived at the Seoul Central District Court earlier in the day, nor when she left.
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Being taken into custody will be a dramatic step in the disgrace of South Korea's first woman president, and is a key demand of the millions of people who took to the streets to protest against her as the scandal engulfed her leadership last year.
The former president was stripped of her immunity when she was dismissed from office by the country's top court earlier this month. Park, 65, has denied the accusations against her.
Ahead of the hearing, prosecutors submitted around 120,000 pages of documents to the Seoul Central District Court relating to the charges against Park, and said it would be "counter to the principle of fairness" if she was not arrested.
"The accused is denying most of the charges, and there is a risk of destroying evidence in the future," they said.
Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jae-Yong, who was arrested last month in connection to the scandal, was in court for over seven hours for his hearing, and his detention was approved early the following day.
Opposition lawmakers had called today for Park's arrest.
"The least she can do as the ex-president who damaged national dignity is to admit her criminal acts, bow her head and seek forgiveness," said a spokesman for the main opposition Democratic Party.
Park, daughter of late dictator Park Chung-Hee, secured the largest vote share of any candidate in the democratic era when she was elected in 2012.
But she was impeached by parliament in December, as the scandal combined with mounting economic and social frustrations to trigger huge candlelit demonstrations. The Constitutional Court later upheld the decision.
Last week she underwent a 21-hour interrogation session at the prosecutors' office, having refused repeated requests to be interviewed while in power.
Another said she had been having "sleepless nights and skipping meals" since moving out of the presidential palace.
Park allegedly offered governmental favours to top businessmen who enriched Choi, including Samsung's Lee.
She is also accused of letting her friend, a high school graduate with no title or security clearance, handle a wide range of state affairs including nomination of top officials.
Park is also said to have cracked down on thousands of artists who had voiced criticisms of her or her father's iron-fisted rule from 1961 to 1979.