Land surface parameterization schemes for atmospheric models as well as decision support tools for ecosystem management require a frequent updating of land cover classification data for regional to global scales. Rice paddies have not been treated independently from other agricultural land classes in many classification systems, despite their atmospheric and ecological significance. A simple but improved method over conventional land cover classification schemes for rice paddy is suggested. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was calculated for the land area of South Korea at a 1km by 1 km resolution from the visible and the near-infrared channel reflectances of NOAA-AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer). Monthly composite images of daily maximum NDVI were prepared for May and August, and used to classify 4 major land cover classes : urban, farmland, forests and water body. Among the pixels classified as "forests" in August, those classified as "water body" in May were assigned a "rice paddy" class. The distribution pattern of "rice paddy" pixels was very similar to the reported rice acreage of 1,455 Myons, which is the smallest administrative land unit in Korea. The correlation coefficient between the estimated and the reported acreage of Myons was 0.7, while 0.5 was calculated from the USGS classification.calculated from the USGS classification.