Hello, this is the History Hour Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Max Pearson, the past brought to life

by those who were there. This week's something of a creative theme as we go inside the studio of Francis Bacon.

This amazingly intense color-filled cluttered space.

Smell of terps and white spirit that was absolutely fascinating.

Also we remember the weird world of Salvador Dali.

The ashtray was kind of moving between the people and there was a silver stick under that and it was attached to the shall of a real

turtle that was walking in the living room.

And the inventors of LEGO.

Physical play is always something that would be there and I think especially play where it stimulates the child's imagination.

That's all to come, but we begin with the harsher world of geopolitics and a moment of heightened

tension between the US and North Korea.

Now if that sounds familiar, it's because this saga has been rumbling on for nearly 70 years.

The Korean War began in 1950 when forces of the North invaded territory under the separate control of the government in the South.

China and Russia backed the North,

the United States with the backing of the United Nations, came to the aid of the South.

By 1953, the two sides had fought to a stalemate and eventually an armistice was signed, setting the

38th parallel as the demarcation between north and south. Technically, they are still at war.

Well against this background in January 1968, a US spy ship was caught by North Korean forces in the sea of Japan.

Its crew were held prisoner for almost a year before being released.

Chloe Hadjimuthio has spoken to Skip Schumacher, one of the young Americans on board.

The few tourists who visit North Korea each year are often invited to see an American military trawler, the Pueblo, which is mored along the Teidong River in Pyongyang.

Guided tours are offered by officials keen to capitalize on the fact that their country

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