Panorama in North Korea 'used students as human cover'

An edition of BBC Panorama filmed secretly during a study trip to North Korea will be broadcast, the BBC says, despite claims students may have been put in danger.

Three BBC journalists accompanied 10 London School of Economics students and spent eight days in the country.

The university and its students' union have demanded the corporation withdraw the programme.

But the BBC said the film was strongly in the public interest.

Sir Peter Sutherland, chairman of the London School of Economics, told the Today programme's Justin Webb that the BBC had used the LSE students "as human cover".

Ceri Thomas, head of programmes for BBC News, said that "we think the risks, as we explained them to the students, we justified".

But he went on to say that had the BBC thought that any lives would be at risk the trip would not have gone ahead.

He also said that the decision making process went to the very top but was not backed by a written agreement with the students.

Broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Monday 15 April 2013.