A motile, rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain WPCB189(T), was isolated from fresh water collected from the Woopo wetland (Republic of Korea). The cells were found to be Gram-negative, aerobic and catalase- and oxidase-positive. A phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that this isolate forms a lineage within the genus Pedobacter, showing sequence similarities of 89.7-96.4 % with respect to recognized species of the genus, and represents a novel member of this genus. The major fatty acids were iso-C(15 : 0) 2-OH and/or C(16 : 1)omega7c (summed feature 3, 29.7 %), iso-C(15 : 0) (26.4 %) and iso-C(17 : 1) 3-OH (10.1 %). The DNA G+C content was 38.0 mol%. On the basis of data obtained from this polyphasic taxonomic study, strain WPCB189(T) represents a novel species of the genus Pedobacter, for which the name Pedobacter koreensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is WPCB189(T) (=KCTC 12536(T)=NBRC 101153(T)).