The short answer
North Korea is subject to comprehensive United Nations sanctions, and many governments specifically warn against hiring North Korean IT workers, who are known to pose as remote developers from other countries. We list no companies here and strongly advise against engaging any software services from North Korea. If you need remote developers, verify identity, location and payment details carefully with any supplier.
North Korea at a glance
- Capital
- Pyongyang
- Official languages
- Korean
- Currency
- North Korean won (KPW)
- Population
- 25.95 million (2024 est.)
- GDP per capita (nominal)
- $1,317 (2025 est.)
Economy. A state-run economy built on machinery, military equipment, mining, metallurgy, textiles and food processing.
Technology. North Korea is sanctioned under multiple UN Security Council resolutions.
Country figures from Wikipedia’s article on North Korea, checked 24 October 2026. Estimates are rounded and dated as stated there.
Working with software companies in North Korea
- Time zone. North Korea uses UTC+09:00 all year, with no daylight saving time. Agree overlap hours in writing before a project starts.
- Data protection. Check which data protection law applies to any personal data you share, and put the obligations into your contract.
- Sanctions. North Korea is subject to comprehensive United Nations sanctions, and many countries prohibit hiring North Korean IT workers or paying North Korean entities. Do not engage software services from North Korea.
- Due diligence. If you need a development partner for a specific project, ask for case studies, interview the engineers and start with a short paid trial. Our guide on how to choose an IT staff augmentation company includes a free vendor scorecard.
- Budget. Typical 2026 hourly rates by region are in our IT staff augmentation cost and rates guide.
How we built this list
- Candidates. We started from Wikipedia’s list of companies of North Korea, the country’s best-known technology firms and companies regularly named in the local and international business press.
- Scope. We kept companies whose main business is software, IT services or a software-based platform, and that are headquartered in North Korea. Telecom operators, banks and hardware makers were left out, as were local offices of foreign groups. Companies founded in North Korea but now headquartered abroad are listed separately when relevant.
- Verification. For every company we checked headquarters, founding year, ownership, size and whether it is still active against its Wikipedia article or, where none exists, its own official website, on 24 October 2026. Each entry links to the page we checked.
- Ranking. Companies are ranked by their most recently stated number of employees, the most comparable size measure available for public and private firms alike.
- No payments. No company paid or was asked to appear. iCreativez Technologies is itself a software and IT services company, so we do not include or rank ourselves on country lists.
Employee figures come from different years, are sometimes self-reported on company websites and sometimes count a whole group rather than one company, so treat the ranking as a guide to scale rather than an exact league table.
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Software companies in nearby countries
Frequently asked questions
Are there software companies in North Korea?
Small IT firms and freelancers operate in most countries, but we could not verify any software or IT company headquartered in North Korea with an independent public track record.
How did you choose the software companies in North Korea?
We considered the best-known companies headquartered in North Korea whose main business is software or IT services. We verified each one against its Wikipedia article or official website and ranked them by reported number of employees. No company paid to be included.
Why are there fewer than 10 companies for North Korea?
We only list companies we could verify. Rather than pad the list with names we cannot confirm, we show no verified companies and suggest nearby markets.
What is the economy of North Korea based on?
A state-run economy built on machinery, military equipment, mining, metallurgy, textiles and food processing. North Korea is sanctioned under multiple UN Security Council resolutions.
What languages and currency are used for business in North Korea?
The official language is Korean, and the currency is the North Korean won (KPW).
Sources
All company details were checked on 24 October 2026 against these pages:
If you represent a company on this page and a detail has changed, contact us and we will review it. Related guides: top IT staff augmentation companies 2026 · staff augmentation vs outsourcing vs managed services.