PATS CHAT

NORTH Korea's football manager has been punished for the team's World Cup flop by being made to work on a BUILDING SITE.

As Fabio Capello keeps his £6million-a-year job and enjoys a long holiday despite England's failure, Kim Jong-Hun, 53, will be grafting as a labourer for up to 14 hours a day.

The coach received his sentence after he and his players faced a six-hour grilling from 400 officials of the Communist country's hardline regime.

Jong-Hun was also stripped of his membership of the Workers' Party of Korea, led by pint-sized Kim Jong-Il.

The dictator was furious as the team lost all three matches, including a humiliating 7-0 thrashing by Portugal.

What made it worse for the tiny tyrant was his decision to allow that match to be shown on state TV after North Korea's narrow 2-1 defeat by Brazil in their opening game.

Jong-Hun, his players and backroom staff were ordered to a World Cup inquest at the People's Palace of Culture in the capital Pyongyang when they returned from South Africa.

The players were then allegedly forced to blame their coach for the defeats.

Jong-Hun was being punished for "betraying the trust of Kim Jong-Un", Kim's son.

A South Korean intelligence source said: "In the past, North Korean athletes and coaches who performed badly were sent to prison camps.

"Considering the high hopes North Koreans had for the World Cup, the regime could have done worse to the team than just reprimand them for their ideological shortcomings."

Reports in South Korea said the Portugal thrashing was a result of direct orders from Kim Jong-Il to switch to an attacking style.

He is a keen sportsman himself and claims to have scored 11 holes in one in a single round of golf.

The North Koreans aren't the only World Cup failures to be punished. The French, who failed to win a game, were suspended for their next match after they walked out of training following a bust-up with ex-coach Raymond Domenech.

And the Nigerian president was so angry he suspended his team from international competition for two years.

A number of managers quit or were sacked after the tournament, including Argentina boss Diego Maradona and Italy's Marcello Lippi.

But the England manager and his players got away with a shambolic World Cup campaign. They all went on luxury holidays within days of their 4-1 defeat by Germany. And Capello kept the best-paid job in football.