In a shocking report that has emerged from North Korea, a student from the country has apparently been sentenced to death for distributing copies of the Netflix hit series ‘Squid Game,’ created by South Korean director Hwang Dong-hyuk.

Other people, including ones who sold copies of the show and watched them illegally, have been sentenced to life imprisonment and five years of hard labour, respectively. The man who smuggled Squid Game acquired a copy of the show in China and brought it back to North Korea, where he allegedly sold copies of the show on USB flash drives.

A source in law enforcement reportedly informed RFA’s Korean Service, “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. The friend told several other students, who became interested, and they shared the flash drive with them.”

“They were caught by the censors in 109 Sangmu, who had received a tipoff. Residents are engulfed by anxiety, as the seven will be mercilessly interrogated until the authorities can find out how the drama was smuggled in with the border closed due to the coronavirus pandemic,” the source reportedly further added.

South Korean series Squid Game, which premiered on September 17 on Netflix , received critical acclaim and became the streaming platform’s most watched series ever with 1.65 billion viewing hours during its first four weeks from launch.