#7 - North Korea

Tuesday 15 June, 7.30pm - Tuesday is a long, long day. I start with a 6.37am train to sunny Northamptonshire, end up briefly back in the office before 5pm, write up a couple of games for this blog (it doesn't write itself, you know!) then trek to New Malden, waaaaay out in deep-south, far-west London.

Still, The Fountain is easy enough to find. It's covered in St George's cross flags, but its popularity with New Malden's Korean population is clear from the banner over the door.



Sam, the bar manager, tells me that I missed a hell of a party when South Korea played on Saturday, but sadly for me, there are precious few Koreans in attendance tonight. Not to be deterred, I get talking to a young couple, Dong Hwan Ko and Eunjung Kim, who are studying English. They're both South Koreans, which interests me. Despite the long-running dispute between their countries, not to mention the recent tension, they're still out supporting the North against Brazil. Why?

Their answer is perfect: that they like the North Korean people, it's only their government that they have a problem with.

Spoken in an English pub on a quiet Monday night, by two young people thousands of miles from a home that seems increasingly threatened by war, that sentiment is rather poignant.