A student who purchased the show was also given a life sentence and six others must do five years hard-labour
A North Korean man has been sentenced to death by firing squad after smuggling and selling copies of Squid Game, according to reports.
Last week Radio Free Asia said that copies of the hit TV Netflix show had been smuggled into North Korea on USB drives and SD cards and now reports that the man who smuggled the show into the country – where it is illegal to own, watch or distribute it – has been sentenced to death.
A North Korean student who purchased the USB drive had been given a life sentence, while six others who watched the show have been sentenced to five years hard-labour after government censors received a tip-off, it said.
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Teachers and administrators at the school are also said to have been fired and could end up being exiled to work in remote 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 source in law enforcement in North Hamgyong province is quoted as telling RFA’s Korean Service.
“The friend told several other students, who became interested, and they shared the flash drive with them.”
It is illegal for North Korean citizens to watch Squid Game – or any South Korean TV program.
Legislation passed last year – dubbed the ‘Law on the Elimination of Reactionary Thought and Culture’ – can result in the death penalty for watching, owning, or distributing media from capitalist countries such as South Korea and the US.
