A Gram-reaction-negative, strictly aerobic, rod-shaped, non-motile strain, designated 2-1-2(T), was isolated from perchloroethylene/trichloroethene-contaminated soil in Suwon, South Korea. A polyphasic approach was used to study the taxonomic position of strain 2-1-2(T). Strain 2-1-2(T) showed highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities to Sphingobacterium daejeonense TR6-04(T) (97.9%) and Sphingobacterium mizutaii ATCC 33299(T) (97.1%); sequence similarities to other Sphingobacterium species were less than 93.0%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain 2-1-2(T) belonged to the clade formed by members of the genus Sphingobacterium in the family Sphingobacteriaceae. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 36.6 mol%. Strain 2-1-2(T) showed the typical chemotaxonomic features of the genus Sphingobacterium, with the presence of a ceramide phosphorylethanolamine (CerPE-2) as the major ceramide, menaquinone 7 (MK-7) as the predominant respiratory quinone and iso-C(15:0), iso-C(17:0) 3-OH and summed feature 3 (comprising iso-C(15:0) 2-OH and/or C(16:1)ω7c) as the major fatty acids. On the basis of phylogenetic inference, fatty acid profile and other phenotypic properties, and DNA-DNA relatedness, strain 2-1-2(T) represents a novel species of the genus Sphingobacterium, for which the name Sphingobacterium kyonggiense sp. nov. is proposed; the type strain is 2-1-2(T) (=KEMC 2241-005(T)=JCM 16704(T)). Emended descriptions of Sphingobacterium daejeonense and Sphingobacterium mizutaii are also proposed.