The taxonomy of the Vietnamese species of the social wasp subfamily Vespinae is revised. Vespa auraria Smith, 1852, is synonymized under V. velutina Lepeletier, 1836. Vespula koreensis (Radosz-kowski, 1887) is recorded as new for Viet Nam, and its color characters are described. A key to vespine species of Viet Nam based on morphological characters is provided.