Series hit from South Korea
This is how the regime from North Korea reacts to “Squid Game”
The heavily indebted players in “Squid Game” fight for a million dollar profit – and for their lives
© Youngkyu Park / Netflix
The South Korean series “Squid Game” shows what people are capable of when they desperately need money. North Korea uses the success of the show for communist propaganda.
A series from South Korea is currently on everyone’s lips: “Squid Game” is officially the most successful Netflix production of all time, said the streaming service. 111 million households worldwide have now watched the series. The success did not go unnoticed by the archenemy from North Korea.
However, the communist regime tries to use “Squid Game” for propaganda purposes – to put the south in a bad light and to convince the population in the north of the advantages of their own country. The series shows the reality of the capitalist South Korean society, in which “corruption and immoral villains are the order of the day”, the news agency Reuters quoted the North Korean propaganda website “Arirang Meari”.
“Squid Game”: North Korea uses criticism of capitalism for propaganda
In “Squid Game” 456 heavily indebted men and women compete against each other in children’s games and fight for a million dollar prize with which they could pay their debts. The losers, however, will be shot on the spot. The game of life and death is for entertainment for the rich, who can bet on the winner. In fact, the series is commonly interpreted as a criticism of the merciless capitalist society, in which poor people have to fight for their existence and lose all moral standards in the process. (Read a review of “Squid Game” here.)
North Korean propaganda goes into this narrative – and quotes itself from such reviews: “It is said that the series makes the people realize the sad reality of the terrible South Korean society in which people are pushed into extreme competition and lose their humanity in the process.” In South Korea the poor are only “pawns” for the rich part of the population.
North Korea under the dictator Kim Jong Un regularly criticizes the cultural life of the class enemy in the south: Among other things, K-pop stars are portrayed as “slaves” of big companies with a “poor life”. South Korean music, movies or TV series are strictly prohibited in the communist country. Citizens who own or consume South Korean media face 15 years in prison.
Source: Reuters