North Korea Watchers are just different

North Korea watching quietly accommodates the eccentric, the introverted, and the neurologically offbeat.

Are North Korea Watchers just different? Or is there more to their distinct proclivities? We’ve all felt it before. At least, anyone who’s spent more than their fair share of time amidst North Korea Watchers, has felt it before. A disturbingly acute sense that not all is quite right.

I first noticed it a long time ago when invited to an event at the Korea Institute for National Unification’s (KINU) old campus near the entrance to Bukhansan, the grand mountain that towers over northern Seoul. The government, flush with Sunshine Policy finances, decided to gather together the best North Korea Watchers from far and wide (and a few young nobodies). Yet, it was as if someone had gathered the trolls and goblins of the deepest caves in the nearby mountain to a luncheon, and there they were, staring at each other and not talking, drinking, and nibbling canapes. The North Korea Watcher field brings together more than its share of the odd and awkward.