Fifteen Shigella sonnei strains isolated in Taegu area during the period 1992 to 1999 were randomly selected to compare epidemiological typing method. Nine different typing methods, i.e., typing by minimum inhibitory concentration of different antimicobials (MIC typing), biotyping, colicin typing, plasmid profile, restriction endonuclease analysis of plasmids (REAP), rRNA gene restriction analysis (ribotyping), PCR-ribotyping, enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus sequence-based PCR (ERIC-PCR), and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) were compared. ERIC-PCR had the highest discriminatory power among the strains and gave 14 different types. PFGE, MIC typing, and plasmid profile produced 7, 8 and 14 distinct patterns respectively. REAP showed identical results plasmid profile. Biotyping and colicin typing showed 2 different types, respectively. Ribotyping using endonuclease Eco RI, Sal I, Hind III, and PCR-Ribotyping, and demonstrated an identical fingerprint for all the test strains.