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, Baker said.

“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, spoke on the sidelines of the World Congress of Korean Studies held this weekend in the city of Jeju.

Don Baker, director of the Center for Korean Research at the University of British Columbia, 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.

Edward J. Shultz, interim dean of the School of Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific Studies at the University of Hawaii, said there were promising contacts with North Korea during the latter years of the Clinton administration, a period of U.S. engagement.

For example, four North Koreans spent a week in Hawaii in early 2001 for a conference. But their visit came just as President Bush was inaugurated.

“That brought about a major change in American policy, American attitude towards North Korea,” Shultz said. “Since then there's been virtually no formal contacts.”

Though North America is a virtual no-go area for North Koreans, Europe is less so, according to Kenneth Quinones, a retired State Department Korea specialist, who said there are at least 150-200 people studying there.

“Most of the programs are linked to humanitarian issues such as food, agriculture or language,” Quinones, a professor at Japan's Akita International University, said Saturday at the conference, which drew about 100 scholars from around the world – none from North Korea, though attempts were made at an invitation.

Despite the difficulties, meaningful exchange can happen, given the right conditions.

For example, a 2005 academic conference in the Chinese city of Shenyang brought together scholars from around the world, including more than 30 from North Korea and over 40 from the South.

“There were two archaeology panels that turned up some new information or things we didn't know about,” said Shultz. “There were some interesting discussions going on. There wasn't a strong, strident party tone.”

A key focus at this point is just to try and establish contacts whenever possible. And Song was optimistic that at least things would not get worse.

“I think this is the bottom,” he said of the aftermath of the nuclear test. “And we should find ways to go up to the surface.”