By John Ikani
A North Korean student is now facing a death penalty for smuggling and watching popular Netflix series Squid Game.
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.
The smuggler faces death by firing squad, while the students involved in bringing “Squid Game” in to school are facing prison sentences.
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
North Korea had emplaced a “strict ban” on materials from either South or West Korea, however this is the first time the North Korean government is taking action on “minors”, as regards to this.
Officials are still searching to expose students who are similarly in possession of “foreign media”.
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.
