Current methods of estimating geotechnical characteristic value for Korean marine clay were discussedwithin the framework of characteristic value which has globally argued during the processing of development ofEurocode 7. Estimation of geotechnical characteristic value, an issue of this dispute, affects not only the determinationof design value applied directly to design of geotechnical structures, but also the economic feasibility and stabilityfollowing results of geotechnical design. In this paper, the characteristic values of main marine clays of Korea werecalculated and compared with those using some methods proposed. As the results, it was appeared that most of thecomputed values were close to mean value and less conservative in the order of Student/Ovesen, Schneider and EN1990. In case of EN 1990 approach, however, it showed an inappropriate to assess geotechnical design value beingcalculated less than zero with statistical variability. Also, it was found that current methods have trends of estimatingmore conservative characteristic values when larger in soil variability