The electrical discharge of high voltage direct current(HVDC) overhead transmission line generate audible noise, radio noise, electric field, ion current and induced voltage on the ground. These items are major factors to design environmentally friendly configuration of DC transmission line. Therefore, HVDC transmission lines must be designed to keep all these corona effects within acceptable levels. Several techniques have been used to assess interference caused by ions on HVDC overhead transmission line. In this study, to assess the ion characteristic of DC line, the ion current density and induced voltage caused by ion flow were measured by plate electrodes manufactured from a metal flat board and charged bodies, respectively. The charged body has two types of cylinder and cylindrical plate. From the results of calibration experiments, the sensitivity of flat electrode and charged body can be obtained. At present, the developed system is used to investigate the ion generation characteristics of Kochang DC ${pm}500kV$ test line.