The present invention pertains to a core wire for a drive belt, the core wire including twisted cords in which a plurality of first-twisted threads are doubled and final-twisted, each first-twisted thread including a plurality of hard first-twisted threads (A) and one soft first-twisted thread (B), the hard first-twisted threads (A) including aramid fibers, and the fineness of each hard first-twisted thread (A) being 1500 dtex or less, the soft first-twisted thread (B) including low-elasticity fibers, and the ratio (B/A) of the first-twist coefficient of the soft first-twisted thread (B) to the average value of the first-twist coefficient of the hard first-twisted threads (A) is 0.5-1.2.