Impacts of Sea Surface Temperature (SST) assimilation to the prediction of upper ocean temperature is investigated by using a regional ocean forecasting system, in which 3-dimensional optimal interpolation is applied. In the present study, Sea Surface Temperature and Sea Ice Analysis (OSTIA) dataset is adopted for the daily SST assimilation. This study mainly compares two experimental results with (Exp. DA) and without data assimilation (Exp. NoDA). When comparing both results with OSTIA SST data during Sept. 2011, Exp. NoDA shows Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of about 1.5∘C1.5∘C at 24, 48, 72 forecast hour. On the other hand, Exp. DA yields the relatively lower RMSE of below 0.8∘C0.8∘C at all forecast hour. In particular, RMSE from Exp. DA reaches 0.57∘C0.57∘C at 24 forecast hour, indicating that the assimilation of daily SST (i.e., OSTIA) improves the performance in the early SST prediction. Furthermore, reduction ratio of RMSE in the Exp. DA reaches over 60% in the Yellow and East seas. In order to examine impacts in the shallow costal region, the SST measured by eight moored buoys around Korean peninsula is compared with both experiments. Exp. DA reveals reduction ratio of RMSE over 70% in all season except for summer, showing the contribution of OSTIA assimilation to the short-range prediction in the coastal region. In addition, the effect of SST assimilation in the upper ocean temperature is examined by the comparison with Argo data in the East Sea. The comparison shows that RMSE from Exp. DA is reduced by 1.5∘C1.5∘C up to 100 m depth in winter where vertical mixing is strong. Thus, SST assimilation is found to be efficient also in the upper ocean prediction. However, the temperature below the mixed layer in winter reveals larger difference in Exp. DA, implying that SST assimilation has still a limitation to the prediction of ocean interior.