Journal of Kim Il Sung University: Mathematics (김일성종합대학학보. 수학 / Kim Il Song Chonghap Taehak Hakpo. Suhak)

Journal of Kim Il Sung University: Mathematics
김일성종합대학학보. 수학 / Kim Il Song Chonghap Taehak Hakpo. Suhak
Translation and backgrounder by Stephen Mercado

A quarterly journal of science and technology related to number, quantity and space, published by the Publishing House of Kim Il Sung University.

Cover of Journal of Kim Il Sung University: Mathematics (김일성종합대학학보. 수학 / Kim Il Song Chonghap Taehak Hakpo. Suhak) 68, no. 4 (2022).

Journal Title: The journal title has various renderings. Journal of Kim Il Sung University: Mathematics in the name in English. Its name in a simplified version of the standard McCune-Reischauer (M-R) transliteration system and the actual title in Korean are listed above. Its full M-R transliteration, as used in catalogs of the Library of Congress and other major libraries, is Kim Il-sŏng Chonghap Taehak hakpo. Suhak. The actual title and its English version both appear on the journal’s front cover and at the top of the first page of each article. The actual title also appears atop the Korean table of contents (TOC); the English version appears at the bottom of the English TOC and on the copyright line in the publishing information section.

Author Information: The research papers show author names but lack other information common to science papers, such as academic or professional affiliation, academic titles, areas of research or author biography. The journal’s title suggests that authors are likely affiliated with a relevant academic department of Kim Il Sung University (KISU). Indeed, certain authors show such affiliations when they cite works of theirs published abroad. For example, Yun Chol Hui cited in an article of his from issue 3, 2022 a work of his published in 2014 in the journal Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, identifying him as affiliated with the KISU Faculty of Mathematics. As another example, Ri Nam Hyok referenced in an article of his from issue 3, 2022 a work of his published in 2019 in the IOSR Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, showing his affiliation with the KISU Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Subject Matter: The articles have to do with the development in such areas as applied mathematics, civil engineering, cryptography, probability and statistics.

References: Authors publishing in this journal tend to cite monographs and journal articles published in English, although some of the publications are Chinese, as are many of the authors. References include Springer’s 2014 book Geometric Modeling in Probability and Statistics and such journals as Designs, Codes and Cryptography and the Journal of Geometry and Physics.

Sections: Each issue comprises a front cover; a TOC in Korean; the articles; a TOC in English; the publishing information; and the back cover. Regime messages/propaganda appear throughout the journal.

The front cover shows a slogan over the journal title, under which is the name of the publisher, and the issue number and year of issue. The TOC in Korean shows article titles without sections. Following the articles is a TOC in English. Next, there is the publishing information, and the back cover shows the periodical publication number.

A side-by-side comparison of a page of the Korean and English TOCs.

Publisher: The publisher’s name in English is the Publishing House of Kim Il Sung University. It is the Kim Il Song Chonghap Taehak Chulpansa in simplified M-R and 김일성종합대학출판사 in Korean. The publisher’s name appears in Korean on the journal’s cover, in English at the end of the English version of the TOC and on the copyright line in the publishing information section.

The publisher has been publishing an issue each quarter, starting in February 2018, for a total of four issues per year. The journal is one of six—the others are Physics, Chemistry, Life Science, Geoenvironmental Science and Geology and Information Science—issued in place of the university’s journal Natural Science / 자연과학, which ceased publication in late 2017. Issue 3 (August), 2022, Volume 68, Issue 3, was cumulative issue number 642. The publishing information page also indicated that there was an editorial committee (no members named), that publisher was the Publishing House of Kim Il Sung University, the place of printing was the Kim Il Sung University Printing Plant, the date of printing was 30 July Juche 111 (2022), and the date of issue was 10 August Juche 111 (2022).The copyright line was © Publishing House of KIM IL SUNG University 2022, DPR Korea. The International Standard Serial Number (ISSN), email address and fax numbers were missing from the publishing information section, while the telephone number, not found in the original journal, was included.