BBC said Wingfield-Hayes, as well as two other staff, producer Maria Byrne and cameraman Matthew Goddard, were detained on Friday as they were about to leave North Korea, and were questioned for eight hours by the North Korean authorities before being made to sign a statement.

The team has since then been taken to the airport and will apparently never be allowed back in the country. 

Video reporting by Wingfield-Hayes can be viewed on BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/video_and_audio/headlines/36199683

In one video, he asks North Korean students studying at Kim Il-sung University why the North should have nuclear weapons. He also questions why they cannot access the Internet and attempts to do a piece-to-camera in front of the statue of Kim Il-sung, North Korea’s founding father and spiritual leader.

The authorities who appear in the video often look uncomfortable at the British reporter’s questions. They are shown interrupting his interview and demanding that he delete the footage taken in front of the statue as they consider it disrespectful.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)