Kim Jong-un (via Flickr)

The university's website did not say what the degree is in but North Korean media announced it was in economics.

But as the New York Times roports, economics might not be the wisest degree to give to a leader whose country is home to one of the world's poorest and most dysfunctional economics.

HELP's (Higher Education Learning Philosophy) decision to honor Kim Jung un with a doctorate degree was unsurprisingly met with criticism from several countries, including Malaysian citizens.

The university's president, Paul Chan, defended the decision, explaining, “To me, the conferment of an honorary doctorate to his excellency Kim Jong-un, supreme leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, is building a bridge to reach the people.”

Mr. Kim inherited a country in which the state's mismanagement of the economy had helped drive a famine in the 1990s that killed hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people. More than a quarter of North Korean children under age 5 currently live with chronic malnourishment, according to the United Nations. 

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