The attenuation mechanism of seismic waves in the crust is controlled both by intrinsic absorption and scattering of energy. The amount of scattering and intrinsic energy losses from the total attenuation is separately estimated in this study for the southern Korean Peninsula. The formula to be deduced from the theoretical relationship between single back-scattered coda Q and multiple scattering theory was used to separate the total attenuation into the intrinsic Q and the scattering Q. It was found that the intrinsic Q was considerably lower than that of the scattering Q in the frequency range of 1.5 to 20 Hz. This fact implies that the energy loss caused by the intrinsic absorption is relatively larger than one by the scattering effect within the crust of the southern Korean Peninsula. Both intrinsic and scattering Q values appeared to be comparatively larger than those measured in other seismically active regions except for intrinsic Q in the frequency range of 1.5 to 3 Hz.