Chairman Kim Jong Un poses for a photo with overseas diplomats summoned to Pyongyang at a North Korean ambassadorial meeting in 2015. He is seen in close conversation with Kim Kye-gwan, then First Vice Foreign Minister. (Capture from Korean Central TV=Yonhap News) 

North Korea has established and is operating an institution called 'Pyongyang Diplomatic University' to professionally train diplomats.

The establishment of the diplomatic university is noteworthy, coinciding with the Kim Jong Un regime's pursuit of active foreign engagement with countries such as Russia, China, and the Global South (developing countries in the Southern Hemisphere).

On the 25th, the 2025, No. 7 issue of "Worker," the political and theoretical journal of the Workers' Party of Korea, which Yonhap News obtained, features an article titled "The United States is the Main Culprit Destroying the Security Environment of the Korean Peninsula," written by Ri Song Hyok under the title 'Professor, Doctorate, and Faculty Member of Pyongyang Diplomatic University.'

It has also been confirmed that in the 2025, No. 4 issue of the quarterly journal "Studies in Philosophy and Socio-Politics," an article by Jeong Geum Hyok, a 'Researcher at Pyongyang Diplomatic University,' titled 'Our Republic's Maritime Strategy is the Best National Defense Strategy that Guarantees the Thorough Defense of the Nation's Sovereignty and Security Interests,' was published.

The name of the institution, Pyongyang Diplomatic University, has never been mentioned by North Korea's leading state-run media such as the Korean Central News Agency, Rodong Sinmun, or Korean Central TV.

However, it has repeatedly appeared in North Korean magazines published last year. Unlike "Pyongyang Foreign Language University," which continues to be mentioned in North Korean media this year, this appears to be a separate institution.

According to defectors who are former diplomats, after the abolition of the University of International Relations under the Workers' Party, which used to train diplomats, graduates from foreign language educational institutions such as Pyongyang Foreign Language University and the Department of Foreign Languages at Kim Il Sung University were mainly selected as resources for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

However, a source familiar with North Korea's foreign affairs sector stated that after graduating from these universities, individuals are now required to complete professional training as diplomats at Pyongyang Diplomatic University. According to this source, Pyongyang Diplomatic University was established by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs just before the pandemic.

It is suggested that North Korea, feeling the limitations of a selection system that primarily favored those proficient in foreign languages, may have re-established an educational institution like the former University of International Relations with the aim of enhancing the professionalism and loyalty to the regime of its diplomats.

There are also suggestions that Pyongyang Diplomatic University may have been established by expanding and reorganizing the 'diplomatic class' at the University of Economy, an institution for training administrative and economic cadres, which has reportedly operated 6-month and 2-year courses for re-educating diplomats.

Pyongyang Diplomatic University may also be responsible for a research function that theorizes North Korea's foreign policy.

In his contribution to "Studies in Philosophy and Socio-Politics," researcher Jeong Geum Hyok (equivalent to a graduate student in South Korea) detailed the military implications of maritime strategy in North Korea's current security environment and the necessity of maritime-based retaliatory capabilities.

He emphasized, "The most reliable means to constrain and block the enemy's overseas military buildup attempts on the Korean Peninsula in case of emergency is to possess long-range operational capabilities and realize the nuclear armament of the navy," and stressed the need to "build capabilities to advance into any waters of the world to proactively deter invasions by enemy nations and launch preemptive or final retaliatory attacks."