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North Korean man who smuggled Squid Game into the country sentenced to death

North Korean man who smuggled Squid Game into the country sentenced to death

A group of high schoolers who purchased the South Korean series on a USB device have been handed severe punishments.
26 Nov, 2021

North Korea takes watching foreign content very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that it is punishing a man who smuggled South Korean Netflix series Squid Game into the country with death.

A group of high school students who purchased the series on a USB drive are facing grave punishments as well.

Business Insider cited a report released by Radio Free Asia (RFA), a US government-funded nonprofit news service serving audiences in Asia, that says a man has been sentenced to death for smuggling the global hit Squid Game across borders. The sentence is to be carried out by firing squad.

The crime was detected by censors in the area when the high school student who bought the smuggled copy watched it with his friends at school. The student who bought the USB drive received a life sentence, while six others have been sentenced to five years of hard labour. This is the first time the North Korean government has applied a recently passed law that penalises the distribution, watching, or keeping of media from capitalist countries on minors.

Not only were the smuggler and the students punished, the authorities also fired the teachers and school administrators, sending them away to remote areas for mine work. They justified the move by saying that the students’ education was being neglected, a source told the RFA.

In the aftermath of the students getting caught, authorities began searching for memory storage devices storing foreign media, sending the residents into a state of anxiety, especially after the hearing about the severity of the punishment.

Squid Game, a show based on hundreds of financially constrained citizens competing with their lives at risk for money, is Netflix’s most watched show ever and has garnered worldwide acclaim. Sources in the RFA report claim that the depiction of the dystopian world in Squid Game resonates with North Koreans who too are in risky occupations, struggling to earn money to support themselves.

The character in the show who fled North Korea encouraging others to behave in the same way is also a cause for concern for the North Korean government. An August 2019 Washington Post report documented how certain South Korean media is considered dangerous by North Korean authorities because they encourage people to escape.

This fear is backed by the Washington Post report — it also attached a survey of 200 North Korean escapees living in South Korea, in which 90 percent said they consumed foreign media while living in the North. The power of media is real, which is why media is censored in the country.

Comments

Sam Nov 26, 2021 06:49pm
Ok fair enough
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John Nov 26, 2021 08:16pm
Wow and pakistan supporting such regime just because they are against US
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A. Khattak Nov 26, 2021 08:24pm
A real dystopia
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syed baqar ahsan Nov 26, 2021 09:22pm
North Korea for how long keep people away from the world????
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Multani Nov 27, 2021 12:05am
I don’t think Bollywood movies are banned there, their rules their country
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HErman dub Nov 27, 2021 12:15am
I'm sure the "dynamic and Debonair" leadership know what they are doing, right Doc?
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mesotwisty Nov 27, 2021 04:15am
Brutal punishments over a tv show. Very sad state of affairs for North Korean people. Like the Palestinians they too are hostages of a brutal and human rights criminal regime. However, over time these despots and tyrants will fade and people will be free.
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Abs Uk Nov 27, 2021 07:27am
@Sam fair enough?? Are you in your senses?
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sawera Ahmed Nov 27, 2021 10:10am
@Sam I sincerely hope you're being sarcastic here...
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nobody Nov 29, 2021 02:21am
Who would sell Nuke Technology to these animals?
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Shujaat Khan Dec 01, 2021 12:12am
@nobody They already got it, thanks to Pakistan National Hero.
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