North Korea to execute student for smuggling popular Netflix series 'Squid Game'

In an incident that draws a parallel with one of the scenes from Netflix’s much-vaunted drama Squid Game, a North Korean student is set to be executed for smuggling the hit show in the country. On Wednesday, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported that the smuggler-a student- stored the web series in a clandestine USB device while in China and brought it back along with him. However, after selling a few copies, the unnamed man was eventually caught by the country’s surveillance services.

In the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, people are banned to access or smuggle material including films and shows from the west as well as South Korea. In 2020, the Kim Jong-un Administration passed a law on “elimination of Reactionary thought and culture” which subjects anyone to a maximum punishment of death for “watching, keeping, or distributing capitalist media. However, a discreet report by RFA revealed that there has been a sharp rise in the spread of the dystopian show with people using USB drives and SD cards. Interestingly, many North Korean have reckoned that they feel related to the show given the fact that they, much like the characters of the show, face the risk of being executed at any point in time.

What will happen to smuggler?

According to Daily Mail, the smuggler will be executed-much like the characters of the show-by a firing squad, which is one of the disturbing methods of execution in the hermit nation. In addendum, one student who brought a copy of the drive has been awarded lifetime imprisonment while six others who watched the show have been sentenced to five years of hard labour. Some teachers, who’ve been linked to the incident, have been fired or risk being banished to work in remote underground mines.

“This all started last week when a high school student secretly bought a USB flash drive containing the South Korean drama Squid Game and watched it with one of his best friends in class,” a law enforcement source told Radio Free Asia.

The South Korean survival thriller series Squid Game gave a deadly twist to the childhood playground games traditionally played in the country including Red Light, Green Light and marbles to win 46 billion Won. The series features Park Hae Soo, Wi Ha‑joon, Lee Jung‑jae and more in pivotal roles.

(Image: AP/Netflix)