NORTH KOREA: A North Korean smuggler was this week sentenced to death for smuggling and selling copies of the famous ‘Squid Game’ Netflix series. The series of events happened after Surveillance Bureau Group 109 received a tip-off and detained seven high school students who were watching the banned series. Surveillance Bureau Group 109 specializes in obtaining illegal media and watchers in North Korea.
Following reports from RFA, the smuggler managed to sneak in a copy of the K-drama from China and sold a USB drive of the K-drama to a high school student, who later watched the K-drama with six friends.
Upon conviction, the smuggler was reportedly sentenced to death by a firing squad while the high school student who purchased and watched the drama was given a life sentence. The remaining six who watched the drama received five years of hard labor.
The dire sentence on the smuggler and the high schoolers is due to a new North Korean law. North Korea passed a law on the “Elimination of Reactionary Thought and Culture” last year. RFA reports content like Squid Game or the “watching, possession or distribution of media from capitalist countries like South Korea and the US” is prohibited in North Korea and the maximum punishment is death.
‘Squid Game’ creator Hwang Dong-hyuk paints a picture of the class gap between the rich and poor and a broken capitalist society. The series revolves around a contest where 456 players, all of whom are in deep financial debt, risk their lives to play a series of deadly children’s games for the chance to win a ₩45.6 billion prize. The title of the series draws from a similarly named Korean children’s game.
The childhood games turned into a series of nightmares as the players resorted to drastic and desperate measures to win the cash prize in the do or die games.
Reports say the drama depicts North Korea’s society characterized by risky occupations and insecure positions.