According to reports, a North Korean student who sneaked copies of Squid Game into the nation and sold them will face the firing squad.
North Korean police apprehended seven high school students who were watching the violent drama on USB flash drives.
According to Radio Free Asia, a student who purchased a drive from the smuggler was sentenced to life in prison after his parents paid authorities US$3000 ($4355). Six others who saw the video were sentenced to five years of hard labor.
The punishment was extended to the students' school, with instructors and administrators facing dismissal and deportation to remote mines.
According to local sources, the smuggler returned from China with a copy of the Netflix episode and sold replicas. According to RFA, he would be executed by firing squad.
"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 law enforcement source in North Hamgyong province told RFA's Korean Service on Monday.
"The friend informed many other students, who expressed an interest and shared the flash drive with them. They were apprehended by censors in 109 Sangmu, who received a tip," the insider explained, referring to the government strike group tasked with capturing unlicensed video viewers.
The arrest of the adolescents is the first time the Government has used a newly enacted law aimed at "elimination of reactionary thought and culture" against individuals under 18.
The law imposes a death sentence for viewing, retaining, or spreading media from capitalist countries.
Authorities have begun searching for additional memory storage devices containing foreign media after the students' arrests.
"The residents are all trembling in fear because they will be mercilessly punished for buying or selling memory storage devices, no matter how small," a resident of North Hamgyong told RFA.
"However, regardless matter how severe the Government's crackdown appears to be, reports are spreading that one of the seven imprisoned kids had their parents bribe the authorities with US$3000 [$4355].
"Residents are complaining that the world is unfair because if parents have money and power even their children who are sentenced to death can be released."
