Although the mechanism of susceptibility to chronic persistent hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is not well clarified, immunogenetic factors of the host may have a role. Recently, a strong association between HLA‐DR13 and the self‐limited course of HBV infection has been reported. To determine whether the elimination of HBV is related to a particular HLA allele, we studied the HBV markers and HLA‐DR phenotypes of 1,272 Koreans who had visited Yonsei University Medical Center for renal transplantation. They included 330 renal transplant donors. Subjects were categorized into 3 different groups: the “Unexposed Group” (UE; n = 946) with negative HBV markers, the “Chronic Carrier Group” (CC; n = 83), who were hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)‐positive, and the “Spontaneously Cleared Group” (SC; n = 243), who were HBsAg‐negative with antibodies to HBsAg (anti‐HBs) and hepatitis B core antigen (anti‐HBc). HLA‐DR4 was the most common type in all groups. HLA‐DR6 was significantly more frequent in 69 of 243 subjects with SC (28.4%) than in 8 of 83 subjects with CC (9.6%) (P < .001; relative risk RR = 3.72). HLA‐DR9 was significantly more frequent in CC than in SC (P < .001; RR = 0.33). HLA‐DR13 showed a stronger association with the clearance of HBV than the other HLA‐DR6 subgroup. The distribution of HLA‐DR phenotypes was similar regardless of renal disease. Our data indicate that HLA‐DR6, especially HLA‐DR13, is one of the host factors, which influences the immune response to HBV, and may be associated with self‐elimination of HBV in Koreans.