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🎓 Top Research Universities in North Korea

Universities and colleges in North Korea ranked by the total citations their research has received (OpenAlex).

📅 2026📏 citations8 entries🇰🇵 See all of this country’s rankings →
Every dot is one entry, placed by its value (citations, logarithmic scale); the vertical bar marks each row’s median.
1
Kim Il-sung University1,907 papers
44,832
2
Kim Chaek University of Technology1,114 papers
21,525
3
Pyongyang University of Science and Technology214 papers
4,205
4
Institute of Natural Science131 papers
934
5
Pyongyang Medical University202 papers
906
6
Hamhŭng University of Chemical Industry25 papers
364
7
Huichon University of Telecommunications1 papers
7
8
Rajin University of Marine Transport10 papers
6

Highlights

Within North Korea, Kim Il-sung University ranks first in 2026 with 44,832, followed by Kim Chaek University of Technology (21,525) and Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (4,205).

Kim Il-sung University is 2.1 times higher than Kim Chaek University of Technology, the runner-up.

Source: OpenAlex, citations received by each institution's papers, 2026. Unit: citations.

Source: OpenAlex, citations received by each institution's papers · CC0 1.0 (OpenAlex) · fetched Oct 13, 2026 — Counts every citation to papers by authors affiliated with the institution, so large and old universities score high. It measures research impact, not teaching quality.