According to The Associated Press, BBC correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, producer Maria Byrne and cameraman Matthew Goddard were detained Friday at the airport as they were trying to leave North Korea after covering a group of Nobel laureates' visit to the country. Wingfield-Hayes told the BBC that he went through eight hours of questioning and was forced to sign a statement.
"North Korean officials made it very clear they did not like the contents of his reports," fellow BBC reporter John Sudworth said, according to the Los Angeles Times. "It was a huge amount of pressure to find himself under."
"Everywhere we go is oddly devoid of any 'real' looking people," he wrote. "The hospital is virtually empty. In one room, a group of tiny pajama-clad children are exercising on gym equipment designed for adults.
Wingfield-Hayes also questioned dictator Kim Jong-un's military experience, writing, "What exactly he's done to deserve the title Marshal is hard to say. On state TV, the young ruler seems to spend a lot of time sitting in a large chair watching artillery firing at mountainsides."
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