Strain DY6(T), a Gram-positive endospore-forming motile rod-shaped bacterium, was isolated from soil in South Korea and characterized to determine its taxonomic position. Phylogenetic analyses based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain DY6(T) revealed that strain DY6(T) belongs to the genus Paenibacillus in the family Paenibacillaceae in the class Bacilli. The highest degree of sequence similarities of strain DY6(T) were found with Paenibacillus gansuensis B518(T) (97.9%), P. chitinolyticus IFO 15660(T) (95.3%), P. chinjuensis WN9T (94.7%), and P. rigui WPCB173(T) (94.7%). Chemotaxonomic data revealed that the predominant fatty acids were anteiso-C(15:0) (38.7%) and C(16:0) (18.0%). A complex polar lipid profile consisted of major amounts of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, and phosphatidylglycerol. The predominant respiratory quinone was MK-7. Based on these phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic, and phenotypic data, strain DY6(T) (=KCTC 33026(T) =JCM 18491(T)) should be classified as a type strain of a novel species, for which the name Paenibacillus swuensis sp. nov. is proposed.