[3] The 15-hectare campus, along with the main academic buildings, contains 10 separate offices, 50 laboratories, libraries, museums, a printing press, an R&D center, dormitories, and a hospital.

Kim Il Sung University enrolls around 16,000 students, and provides courses in the fields of law, economics, humanities, and natural sciences.

[7] In the spring of 2017, Kim Il Sung University set up specialist Japanese language and literature courses.

Academics supported more intellectual freedoms than Kim loyalists, and disadvantageous factions within the Workers' Party of Korea were over-represented in university staff.

Until 2004, Pak Kwan-o, an authority on nuclear physics and current Chairman of the People's Committee of Pyongyang (synonymous with mayor), had been serving as the president for 17 years.

[17] Foreign students seeking to undertake postgraduate studies at Kim Il Sung University are required to provide their birth certificate, a letter of intent, their undergraduate certificate(s), a police certificate stating that the applicant does not have a criminal record in their home country, medical records certifying the applicant had a recent health examination, details of their financial background to show how they will be financing their education in North Korea, as well as a letter vouching for the applicant's Korean language ability.