‘Squid Game’ smuggler in North Korea sentenced to death by firing squad - report

A man who smuggled the hit Netflix series “Squid Game” to North Korea has reportedly been sentenced to death by a firing squad after seven high schoolers were caught watching the show.

According to a report by Radio Free Asia (RFA), a private non-profit news service funded by the United States government, he brought the show back from China and sold flash drives containing copies.

“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 source from the law enforcement in North Hamgyong province told RFA.

“The friend told several other students who became interested, and shared the flash drive with them,” it added. “They were caught by the censors in 109 Sangmu, who had received a tipoff.”

While the student who brought the flash drive received a life sentence, the other six students were given five years of hard labor. Some personnel were also fired from the academic establishment.

“The government is taking this incident very seriously, saying that the students’ education was being neglected. [They] dismissed the school principal, their youth secretary, and their homeroom teacher.”

“They were also expelled from the party. It is certain that they will be sent to toil in coal mines or exiled to rural parts of the country,” the source added.

Due to the incident, authorities have also started investigating markets for any signs of items containing foreign media such as memory storage devices and video CDs.

The law “Elimination of Reactionary Thought and Culture” in North Korea prohibits entry and use of any form of cultural materials from countries like the United States and South Korea.

A decade in the making, "Squid Game" is about 456 people who are invited to play a mysterious game.

The game turns out to be a terrifying fight for survival as the players have to play traditional children's games with deadly twists, all for a cash prize of 45.6 billion won (nearly P2 billion).

It has become Netflix's no. 1 show in the world. — LA, GMA News