Strain Jip14(T), a Gram-negative, non-spore-forming, rod-shaped, non-motile bacterium, was isolated from dried rice straw and characterized in order to determine its taxonomic position. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that strain Jip14(T) belongs to the family Sphingobacteriaceae, and the highest degree of sequence similarity was determined to be to Pedobacter saltans DSM 12145(T) (88.5 %), Pedobacter africanus DSM 12126(T) (87.6 %), Pedobacter heparinus DSM 2366(T) (87.1 %) and Pedobacter caeni LMG 22862(T) (86.9 %). Chemotaxonomic data revealed that strain Jip14(T) possesses menaquinone MK-7 and the predominant fatty acids C(15 : 0) iso, C(16 : 0), C(16 : 0) 10-methyl, C(17 : 0) iso 3-OH and summed feature 3 (C(15 : 0) iso 2-OH/C(16 : 1)omega7c). The results of physiological and biochemical tests clearly demonstrated that strain Jip14(T) represents a distinct species. Based on these data, Jip14(T) should be classified within a novel genus and species, for which the name Parapedobacter koreensis gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Parapedobacter koreensis is Jip14(T) (=KCTC 12643(T)=LMG 23493(T)).