BBC correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes and his team have been expelled from North Korea after being detained over their reporting.

Our correspondent, producer Maria Byrne and cameraman Matthew Goddard were stopped by officials on Friday as they were about to leave North Korea.

Wingfield-Hayes was questioned for eight hours by North Korean officials and made to sign a statement.

All three remained in Pyongyang before flying to Beijing on Monday.

After arriving in Beijing, Byrne tweeted that they were “very happy” to be back but were not doing any interviews.

The BBC team was in North Korea ahead of the Workers’ Party Congress, accompanying a delegation of Nobel prize laureates conducting a research trip.

The North Korean leadership was displeased with their reports highlighting aspects of life in the capital.

At a news conference on Monday, a North Korean government spokesperson said Wingfield-Hayes and his colleagues had been “speaking very ill of the system”.

A BBC spokesman said: “We are very disappointed that our reporter Rupert Wingfield-Hayes and his team have been deported from North Korea after the government took offense at material he had filed.

“Four BBC staff, who were invited to cover the Workers Party Congress, remain in North Korea and we expect them to be allowed to continue their reporting.”