North Korea detains BBC journalist
Seoul - North Korea is to expel a BBC journalist because of his reporting, the British broadcaster said Monday.
Reporter Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, producer Maria Byrne and camera operator Matthew Goddard were detained on Friday when they were about to leave the isolated communist country.
North Korea was unhappy with his reporting, according to Stephen Evans, another BBC correspondent in Pyongyang.
Wingfield-Hayes was interrogated for eight hours and had to sign a statement, the BBC said.
His team had been in North Korea to accompany a group of Nobel prize winners on a research trip.
North Korea has been holding the first congress for 36 years of the Korean Workers' Party, which runs the one-party state.
During the congress in Pyongyang, leader Kim Jong Un vowed not to use nuclear weapons unless attacked, state-run media said Sunday.
The gathering is being seen as a way for Kim to consolidate his position as supreme leader of the secretive nation.
- DPA
