BBC journalists expelled as North Korean leader cements power

SEOUL — North Korea expelled a BBC reporting crew Monday for what it deemed a disrespectful portrayal of the country and its leader, Kim Jong Un, as Kim used a rare Workers’ Party congress to cement his grip on power.

More than 100 foreign journalists were granted visas to visit North Korea for the duration of the seventh congress of the Workers’ Party, the first such political gathering in 36 years.

In one of his reports, Wingfield-Hayes said that his team was “in trouble” after shooting a segment in front of a statue of the North’s founding president, Kim Il Sung, in which he said something on camera that he said government minders deemed disrespectful.

Before its four-day session ended Monday, the congress bestowed Kim Jong Un with a new top title, chairman of the Workers’ Party, after he called for a more vigorous development of nuclear weapons and missiles, state-run media reported.

Kim Jong Un, the third-generation leader in his family’s dynastic rule of North Korea, had been widely expected to use the congress to cement his grip on power and have his crucial policies, including the policy of increasing a nuclear arsenal while rebuilding the economy, adopted as official party lines.