A North Korean student will be executed after distributing copies of Squid Game in the country

The North Korean man will be killed by a firing squad for distributing copies of the hit Netflix show Squid Game in the country. The man, understood to be a student, is believed to have smuggled the South Korean show into the country from China, and sold copies of the show on USB flash drives according to Radio Free Asia.

A high school student who bought one USB drive has been sentenced to life in prison

Six others who watched the show have been sentenced to five years of hard labour.

The students were punished under North Korea’s new “Elimination of Reactionary Thought and Culture” law.

The educators of the students – the principal and teacher – have been dismissed from their jobs, and are likely to be moved to work in coal mines or rural areas.

The North Korean law places heavy punishments on watching, keeping or distributing media from capitalist nations

Particularly harsh punishments are placed on shows, movies and music from South Korea and the United States.

North Korean authorities believe that watching foreign material encourages their citizens to attempt to defect from the country.

Squid Game has become a major hit on streaming giant, Netflix.

The series tells the story of a group of competitors forced to play deadly games in order to win a vast sum of cash.The South Korean show is Netflix’s most watched series.

North Korean news site Arirang Meari reported that the show is an example of the brutality suffered by people in capitalist South Korea.