Academic Exchanges Harder With N. Korea

South Koreans walk by displays of North Korea's Scud-B missile, center in green, and other South Korean missiles at Korea War Memorial Museum in Seoul in this April 29, 2005 photo. North Korea fired five short-range missiles during military training last week, a South Korean newspaper reported Monday, Oct. 30, 2006. It was part of an annual training session to test the combat readiness of North Korea's military, but it is unusual for the North to fire such a large number of missiles, the official was quoted as saying. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon,File) (Ahn Young-joon - AP)

JEJU, South Korea -- Fostering academic ties with isolated North Korea, already a challenge, is likely to get even harder after the country's nuclear test, scholars at an international conference said Sunday.

Universities and academic societies in the noncommunist world have sought over the years to develop relationships with educational institutions in North Korea _ with their degree of success often linked to the quality of Pyongyang's relations with the outside world.

"Academic exchange with North Korea looks quite difficult these days," said Song Jae-mog, secretary-general of the Japan-based International Society for Korean Studies.

Even under the best of circumstances, contact with North Korea is difficult.

Independent inquiry is problematic and major achievements are attributed to the country's founder Kim Il Sung, or his son and successor, Kim Jong Il.

When North Koreans do manage to attend a conference or get a fellowship, they are usually on a tight leash.

"North Korean scholars normally can't come alone," Song said. "Always they have some guides," he added, referring to official minders sent along to make sure they do not stray.

The North has been much more reluctant to send people abroad since 1989, the year of the Tiananmen Square democracy protests in China and the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, said Don Baker, director of the Center for Korean Research at the University of British Columbia.

"The North Koreans began to feel beleaguered," as such locations were once considered ideologically safe places to study, he said.

Song, a professor of linguistics at the Osaka University of Economics and Law, and other scholars spoke on the sidelines of the World Congress of Korean Studies held this weekend in the city of Jeju.

Baker said the nuclear test will not make things easier.

"I think for the next six months or so it's going to be very difficult to have exchange because of all the tension" related to the Oct. 9 underground blast, he said.