There is speculation that an unflattering description of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un contained in a report that the correspondent, named Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, made from Pyongyang on April 29 was probably what bothered North Korea. “He criticized the customs of the republic and violated its legal order”.
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Its Defence Ministry yesterday said North Korea will never be recognised as a nuclear power by South Korea and the worldwide community, and that Seoul will continue to exert pressure and uphold sanctions to force Pyongyang to give up its nuclear ambitions. Mr. Sudworth said the BBC had sought to keep the detention and expulsion order quiet out of concern for the safety of Mr. Wingfield-Hayes and two other members of his team, who had refused to leave on Friday after he was detained.
BBC reporter Rupert Wingfield-Hayes is questioned by reporters after arriving at Beijing Capital Airport, after he was expelled from North Korea for “distorted” reporting. “What exactly he’s done to deserve the title Marshal is hard to say”.
Also Sunday, leader Kim Jong Un delivered a three-hour speech to delegates to review the country’s situation and progress since the last congress was held in 1980, before Kim was born.
Sudworth said in his report Wingfield-Hayes had been prevented from leaving on Friday and taken away. “Can we still talk about denuclearization, or do we aim for a freeze and a cap?”
Writing in his personal capacity and as head of China’s ruling Communist Party, Xi expressed hope that Kim’s leadership would bring “new accomplishments in the cause of building socialism”, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Though North Korea appears to be making significant progress in developing what it calls a nuclear deterrent, its economy is still recovering from the collapse of the Soviet Union and its East bloc allies and a massive starvation in the 1990s.
The country’s nominal head of state, Kim Yong-Nam, addressed the parade before it began, praising Kim Jong-Un and congratulating him on his election the day before as chairman of the Workers’ party of Korea.
BBC correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes and two his colleagues who had been in North Korea to cover the visit of a group of Nobel laureates ahead of the congress were expelled from the country on Monday over his reporting. We still think he could’ve gone with Warden of the North, though.
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The young North Korean leader has so far been working under the title of the “First Secretary of the WPK”. Officials have kept the foreign media busy with trips around Pyongyang to show them places it wants them to see. The Sci-Tech Complex was displaying an enormous model of the Eunha-3, which North Korea put into orbit in December 2012, the newspaper reported. The congress’ decision on strengthening the capability of its nuclear weapons formalises North Korea’s position.
