BBC accused of putting students at risk after journalists infiltrate university trip to North Korea

The BBC is at the centre of a row after a leading university accused it of putting its members at risk by sending a team of undercover Panorama journalists into North Korea as part of a student trip.

 

The team of three, which included reporter John Sweeney, travelled to the secretive state last month with members of a London School of Economics student society.

The university has said the genuine students on the trip had been “deliberately misled” by the BBC and were put in “serious danger” by the presence of the BBC team. It said Sweeney, who graduated from the university in 1980, had passed himself off as a current PhD student.

It has accused the Corporation of taking an “unacceptable” risk. Had the journalists' identity been discovered by the North Korean authorities, the entire group could have been arrested and faced punishment.

The journalists travelled to the country with members of the LSE’s Grimshaw Club, which was established in 1923 and is part of the International Relations Department.

While in North Korea, the Panorama team filmed undercover footage that will be broadcast in North Korea Undercover on BBC One on Monday.