The natural disaster occurrences and the loss of lives caused by the steep-slope failures in Korea were investigated in this study. The investigation includes the frequency rate of the steep-slope failures with respect to the characteristics of precipitation, underlying bedrock, and weathered soils. Analysis on the problems in the existing estimation methods of steep-slope failure was also undertaken, and a new model using unsaturated infinite slope stability was developed for the better slope failure estimation. The slope analyses by the newly developed model were performed considering unsaturated infinite slope, the gradient of slope, and hydro/mechanical properties of soils. Steep-slope failure estimation criterion is proposed based on the analysis results. In addition, the precipitation amount corresponding to warning stages against steep-slope failure is provided as an equation of Intensity-Duration criterion.