In this study, simple sequence repeat (SSR) analyses were utilized for evaluation of genetic diversity and discrimination of 17 accessions. Five cultivars, which were developed from Korea, and 12 foreign accessions, which were collected from China, Japan, Russia and USA, were evaluated by nine markers out of 22 SSR markers. A total of 39 alleles were detected, ranging from 2 to 8, with an average of 4.3 alleles per locus. The expected heterozygosity and PIC values were 0.627 and 0.553, with a range from 0.21 (GB-PG-078) to 0.76 (GB-PG-142) and from 0.19 (GB-PG-078) to 0.70 (GB-PG-142), respectively. Four makers out of nine SSR markers, GB-PG-026, GB-PG-043, GB-PG-142 and GB-PG-177, were selected as key factors for discrimination of Korean ginseng cultivars and foreign accessions. All of Korean ginseng cultivars and foreign accessions were individually by the combination of four SSR markers. Consequently, the SSR markers developed in this study may prove useful for the evaluation of genetic diversity and discrimination of Korean ginseng cultivars and foreign accessions.