A BBC correspondent and his team have been detained in North Korea and will be expelled for reporting that allegedly upset the communist country's leadership, the news channel said Monday.

Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, along with producer Maria Byrne and cameraman Matthew Goddard, were detained on Friday as they were about to leave the country, the BBC reported.

North Korean officials questioned Wingfield-Hayes for eight hours before making him sign a statement, it said.

The three, who were in North Korea to cover a recent trip there by a group of Nobel prize laureates, have now been taken to the airport.

The BBC quoted its journalist Stephen Evans, who is still in Pyongyang, as saying the North was "displeased" with their reports that "highlighted aspects of life in the capital."

Earlier, CNN journalist Will Ripley wrote in a Twitter message that Wingfield-Hayes had been detained and expelled "for reporting deemed disrespectful of leader Kim Jong-un." (Yonhap)