The placental mtDNA of 42 individuals from Korean (Seoul) population was analysed for restriction site variation by digestion with restriction endonuclease HpaI, without using Southern blotting analysis and the end labeling method. Four different cleavage patterns (morphs) were identified for HpaI. One of the HpaI morphs was considered as a new variant. The new morph showed a similar cleavage pattern with the morph 2; a little longer than the morph 2 which were consist of 10.30, 4.21 and 2.51kb, respectively. However, authors considered that the details on the new morph structures should be confirmed in the future.