From 1989 to 2006 Hwang Ik Hwan served as an Assistant of the researcher and Researcher at the North's Korean Foreign Ministry-affiliated Institute for Disarmament & Peace (IDP). In 2006–2010 worked at the position of Consul at the DPRK Consulate General in Hong Kong. From 2010 to 2013 he was a Senior Researcher of the DPRK Foreign Ministry-affiliated Institute for Disarmament and Peace. Since 2013 he became head of External Affairs & Disarmament Studies Departments at the IDP.