Temporal and spatial variations of sea water largely affect on the pattern of underwater sound propagation. Acoustic environmental changes and their effects on underwater sound propagation in the northern part of the East Sea, which have been poorly studied mainly due to lack of observations, are investigated by analyzing the hydrographic data acquired since 1993. Severe changes in acoustic environments are associated with various physical processes such as deep convection, thermal fronts, and eddies in the northern part of the East Sea. Spatio-temporal variations of sound speed field and the layer of the maximum sound speed are categorized into six typical cases. Using a sound source of 5 kHz, acoustic transmission losses are calculated range-independently for the six typical cases. Significant differences among the patterns of transmission loss in the six cases suggest that a different tactics are required when we operate in the northern part of the East Sea.