Photo: PIERO CRUCIATTI / AFP / Getty Images
A man who smuggled copies of the hit South Korean series from Netflix “The Squid Game” (Squid Game) to North Korea was sentenced to death , after the authorities surprised high school students watching the program , according to Radio Free Asia (RFA).
The independent RFA news agency , based in the United States, reported, citing sources, that the series was smuggled from China on USB flash drives and that the smuggler faces death by firing squad.
“A student who bought a unit received a sentence of per life, while six others who watched the show were sentenced to five years of forced labor, and teachers and school administrators were fired and face exile to work in mines. remote ”, reported RFA.
In December 2020, North Korea passed the “Elimination of Reactionary Thought and Culture” law, which prohibits the entry and dissemination of cultural material such as films, plays, music and books in the country.
The main objective of the law is to prevent the spread of the media of South Korea and the United States.
Those who find themselves distributing or consuming them can be punished.
According to widespread reports, in April this year a man was publicly executed for selling units and CDs containing South Korean material.
“Squid Game”, in particular, has been a source of anger in the dictatorship.
North Korean propaganda site Arirang Meari criticized the high-concept survival drama as a description of the “sad reality of a beastly South Korean society. ”
The RFA report suggests that there is great public anxiety about the fate of high school students and that more people could be involved in the research.
Netflix is not available in China, but “Squid Game” has been widely pirated in the country, according to reports.