People who share or watch Netflix's blockbuster show 'Squid Game' are apparently being punished harshly in North Korea.
According to Radio Free Asia, a man has been condemned to death in the country for smuggling and selling copies of a South Korean dystopian series. A high school student was also condemned to life in jail for purchasing the show's hard drive.
Six other high school students who viewed the show were sentenced to five years of hard labor, as were their supervisors, teachers, and school administrators.
"It all started last week when a high school student bought a USB flash drive carrying the South Korean drama Squid Game in surreptitiously and viewed it in class with one of his best friends," a law enforcement source in North Hamgyong province told RFA.
"The friend told a few other students about the flash drive, and they were fascinated, so they shared it with them."
This is said to be the first time the reclusive country has taken such punitive actions against youngsters as a result of its regulations prohibiting the distribution of films from South Korea and the United States, among other countries.
Hwang Dong-dystopian hyuk's series, which premiered on Netflix in September to great acclaim, swept the internet by storm. It tells the story of 456 extremely indebted people playing in survival games for a prize pool of 45.6 billion won ($38.3 million).