Report: ‘Squid Game’ an Illegal Hit in North Korea

South Korea’s international hit show Squid Game, one of the most popular shows offered by streaming giant Netflix, is reportedly spreading through North Korea via bootleg copies on flash drives and memory cards.

A source in the northern city of Pyongsong told Radio Free Asia (RFA) on Tuesday that illicit copies of Squid Game are arriving by ship and quietly passing from hand to hand throughout the Communist tyranny. Fans watch the show “under their blankets at night on their portable media players.”

RFA’s source offered some interesting insights as to why North Korean citizens love the show, and why North Korean censors are trying to block it, even though they should theoretically endorse a dystopian drama that ostensibly lampoons the evils of capitalism:

“They say that the content is similar to the lives of Pyongyang officials who fight in the foreign currency market as if it is a fight for life and death,” said the man, who had watched the show at his money-changer brother’s house in Pyongyang.

“They think the show’s plot kind of parallels their own reality, where they know they could be executed at any time if the government decides to make an example out of them for making too much money, but they all continue to make as much money as possible,” said the source.

“It not only resonates with the rich people, but also with Pyongyang’s youth, because they are drawn to the unusually violent scenes. Also, one of the characters is a North Korean escapee and they can relate to her,” the source said.

Another North Korean suggested Squid Game grew popular with smugglers because they saw parallels to their own perilous trade in a show where losing a child’s game means instant death. The smugglers then passed their Squid Game flash drives along to black-market customers.

RFA noted that execution is a very real possibility for smugglers who make a wrong move in North Korea and, for that matter, the dictatorship recently put the death penalty on the table for those caught “watching, keeping, or distributing capitalist media, especially from South Korea or the U.S.”

Getting shot in the head for watching a show about people who get shot in the head for moving a muscle during a game of Red Light, Green Light would be about as meta as it gets. 

Also meta: RFA’s sources said poverty is so extreme among North Koreans that even the police are now offering steep discounts on bribes to look the other way when they catch people consuming forbidden South Korean media. In other words, the poverty inflicted by communism is making it safer to watch popular satires about heartless capitalism.

Business Insider suggested the North Korean regime might have soured on Squid Game because while the North Korean character receives a generally positive depiction, her motivation for entering the deadly games is raising enough money to help the rest of her family escape from North Korea.

On the other hand, North Korea expert Michael Madden of the Stinson Center told the New York Post (NYP) last week that dictator Kim Jong-un was secretly pleased by the prospect of Squid Game playing on screens around the world, and beneath North Korean bedsheets.

“Kim’s got to be thrilled at how South Korea is being depicted to the world. He’s always railing about the influence of the West, and the consumerism, and of South Korean and American society. He’s got to be loving Squid Game,” said Madden.

The NYP observed that North Korean state media has hailed Squid Game for illustrating the “beastly” nature of South Korean capitalism, where “the strong exploit the weak” and “mankind is annihilated by extreme competition.”

“The filmmakers are also leftist and they’re from a generation in South Korea that hates America. They’re made South Korea look horrific – even though it’s really not that bad – and the North Koreans love this and are taking advantage of it. They all think they’re involved in this existential struggle,” added China expert and Losing South Korea author Gordon Chang.