High School Girl Tortured for Watching Squid Game in North Korea
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This story is based on actual events. Some incidents, characters, and timelines have been changed for dramatic purposes. Certain characters may be composites or entirely fictitious. Ryuk Hyun Ki had a secret. Two secrets, really. The first was that he was in love with his classmate, Pan Min Joong, a girl from a poor family his parents would never allow him to date. And Ryuk's second secret was one he shared with Pan.

an illegal USB device containing all nine episodes of the Netflix show Squid Game. Pan was the one who bought the USB. It was smuggled over the Chinese border, then sold in one of North Korea's mobile black markets. Ryuk was the first one Pan shared Squid Game with. They devoured the first three episodes before deciding to show the rest of their friend group. They knew it was dangerous, but all seven friends loved Western culture.

For them, it was like a secret society, a counterculture club. One October afternoon after school, the club met at Ryuk's house. His parents, both minor government officials, were working. The seven friends piled into the den around Ryuk's laptop. Houses in North Korea are usually modest, to the point of discomfort, but Ryuk's parents did well in their positions.

enough that their home with its large couch and new TV and high ceilings was lavish compared to its neighbors. Pond sat next to Ryuk. She was slim and athletic, one of the best athletes in their class, maybe even the entire school. Her features were sharp and her brown eyes were quick. Whenever Squid Game became too tense, she would reach for Ryuk's hand and he'd squeeze back to reassure her that everything would be fine.

The counterculture club watched four episodes of the show before they heard the sound of Ryuk's parents returning, their new car pulling into the garage with a rumble. Han quickly removed the USB from Ryuk's laptop and hid it in the pocket of her dark school uniform. The club spread out textbooks and notepads and pens all across the floor of the den. If Ryuk's parents checked in on them,

there would be plenty of evidence that the group was studying for upcoming exams. Ryuk's parents didn't bother looking in on the kids, however. They went upstairs to change into evening clothes, then left back through the garage without a word to network with clients at some of Pyongyang's modest bars. Once the sound of their car faded,

Han slipped the USB from her pocket, fired up the laptop, and leaned in against Ryuk so they could watch another episode of Squid Game. What is Squid Game? What makes it worth risking prison time or even death to watch in North Korea? Those are the stakes. There is even a special government strike force that specializes in catching illegal video watchers, known officially as Surveillance Bureau Group 109.

Squid Game is a South Korean thriller television show released in 2021. It is Netflix's most watched show of all time, dominating ratings in more than 94 countries and racking up over 142 million views within a month after release. The actual number of views is certainly much higher since some countries, such as North Korea, have officially banned the dystopian show. But citizens continued to stream Squid Game in secret,

According to news site Radio Free Asia, Squid Game appeals to North Koreans for several reasons. The premise of the show is that 456 individuals drowning in debt are invited to a secret high-stakes game where they are able to gamble their lives for the chance to win a fortune. Every game is monitored by masked guards carrying weapons, and any broken rule or failure results in an immediate execution.

There are a lot of parallels between the life or death struggle and living in North Korea according to sources for RFA. Just like in Squid Game, any mistake or diversion from the status quo in North Korea can result in a bullet to the back of the head. Fail to follow the rules and you die.

Try to grind your way out of poverty and you'll be risking your life against a callous regime all too ready to eliminate you just because they can. The masked guards in Squid Game bear a chilling resemblance to faceless North Korean soldiers and secret police.

but desperate people take incredible risks. And Pan and her classmates were desperate for anything hinting at a world better than the misery of a big brother state, watching their every move and demanding conformity, which is why Pan Min-jung had a secret, an entire drawer full of secrets, actually. She built a false bottom into the top drawer of her nightstand with the help of her older cousin, Shi-ho.

Inside of Pond's secret stash were a half dozen USBs with Western shows, including Squid Game. She also had a pair of knockoff designer sunglasses, a Mickey Mouse pin, lip gloss, and several dog-eared paperback novels written in English. Pond didn't speak the language, but she was trying to make the words familiar on the off chance she'd ever be able to leave the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Pan dreamed of traveling the world. A life lived without constantly needing to check over her shoulder to see if she was being monitored. Maybe it was a crazy dream, a fever dream, but it was one Pan and Ryuk talked about many times whenever they could steal a moment away. They'd sit on Ryuk's parents' roof and look out over the skyline of Pyongyang. Ryuk would wonder out loud how other cities would compare when they finally got a chance to travel.

Pon would look at the stars and try to imagine how they would shine in foreign skies. China, England, South Africa, the United States. She hoped to see them all. Of all of Pon's secrets, the USB with squid game was her favorite. That's because it was the most dangerous. It had already almost gotten her killed. Pon's cousin, Shiho, didn't just teach her how to build a hideaway drawer.

Ji Ho also introduced Pan to North Korea's underground markets. If you knew where to look and the right people to talk to, you could get almost anything. Candy from the US, cigarettes from France, beer from Germany. All of it came slipping in over the Chinese border like leaves blowing through a damaged fence. Ji Ho was long gone. She'd disappeared two years before when Pan was 14. No one knew where they'd taken Ji Ho,

only that they'd taken her. She might wander back in a few years half-starved and low-eyed, or maybe Pon would never see her cousin again. Either way, she learned to be more careful after that. Even with all of her caution, the day Pon picked up the USB containing Squid Game from her old friend, Seagong Dong-soon, she was nearly caught by the state surveillance team, SBG 109. It was warm that day,

Pan headed down to the docks at the Taidong River. She could smell fresh dough and cooking fish from food vendors in their booths. Clouds cast shadows on the water that floated like fishing boats on the current. Pan ducked down an alley between a noodle stand and a grocery store with bare shelves. So Gong sat on a blanket against the wall, smoking and reading a magazine and scratching at his beard.

Pon slipped the old man an envelope with money and he handed her another containing a USB with a Western show. She didn't care which one, only that it was new and not allowed. It was only luck, good or bad, that the USB contained Squid Game. Feeling the wind on her face and the sun behind it, Pon walked out of the alley and nearly bumped into two tall officers dressed in gray coats. She was holding the USB in her hand

One of the officers saw the device, or maybe the panicked look on her face. He was young, barely older than Pan was, but he was dangerous. So she ran. The officers followed. The docks at the Taidong River were a maze of stalls and slips and cutouts. Pan was fast, the fastest girl in her school. She slipped through the crowds like a needle, but still, they almost caught her.

Pon felt a hand clutching at her jacket. She shrugged it off and climbed up a short wall, then over a fence, and then she was back on the street and safe. Pon didn't tell Ryuk or any of her other friends that she was almost caught. That was her secret too. The night after she showed the Counterculture Club the first episodes of Squid Game, Pon returned home and watched the rest of the series on her old laptop, hidden under her sheets.

She'd watch all of it again with Ryuk, and then again with all of their friends. But that night, Squid Game belonged to Pond. She earned it. Rim-Yoon had a secret. She loved her students like they were her children, and that was not allowed. Her job was to instruct, to teach her kids to be good citizens and to love dear leader. If they didn't follow those rules, then her duty was to inform the authorities.

Rim never did that. She knew about Paan and Ryuk and the counterculture club. Rim heard them whispering in class and in the school's hallways. They exchanged English words like hidden treasures. The students shared looks and played games after school. Kids games that Rim remembered from her own childhood. There was Mugunha, which Americans know as red light, green light. The teens also played marbles and honeycomb in tug of war.

They played these games quickly and secretly, but Rim noticed. Just like she was supposed to watch the students, Rim knew she was always being observed as well. So it was hard for her to warn them. The best she could do was pull Ryuk and Pan aside after class one sunny afternoon. "Whatever you're doing, you have to stop," Rim told them. "People will notice."

Ryuk squirmed. He was a quiet boy, tall and handsome with connected parents. It wasn't in his nature to break the rules, but Rim could tell he loved Pan, and Pan looked back at her with steady eyes. "We haven't done anything wrong," Pan told Rim. "But thank you for your guidance, teacher." That was all that could be said on the matter. You never knew who was listening, watching, waiting for any ripple of trouble. To press Ryuk and Pan further would risk attention.

So Rim just smiled and apologized. The two students left her classroom hand in hand. That was the last time Rim would see them. She watched them as they walked down the hall through shafts of autumn sunlight. The pair passed another classroom with an open door. After they were gone, Rim saw Mr. Xiong step from the room into the hall. He watched Ryuk and Pan leave, then turned and made eye contact with Rim at that moment.

Rim knew her secret was no longer a secret. The state would be watching the teenagers. Xiong would do his duty and alert everyone. Rim didn't know how much he heard or how much he suspected, but whatever it was, it would be enough. The students would be under surveillance. Rim would be reported. Her attempt to warn her students to be careful might have killed them all. So Gong Dong Soon had a secret. The truth was,

He had nothing but secrets. He was a smuggler, a rum runner, a broker of stolen or otherwise imperfect goods who prowled the long border between China and North Korea. Above all else, Sogong was a capitalist.

He made his living bribing guards and officials, and those he couldn't bribe, he bullied or evaded. Not many men got old in Seogong's profession. Most were caught by faceless soldiers and shot quietly without trial or fuss. It was tough being wedged in between the hermit kingdom and the red dragon. If the Chinese didn't catch you on the way out, the North Koreans usually hunted you down by squeezing those close to you until they informed. Luckily for Seogong,

He was alone in life. Seogong had no family or friends, though he did have a handful of clients he probably cared about more than he should. Pan was one of those special few, a repeat customer that always brightened Seogong's day with a joke or a smile. Sometimes she would sit with him for a few minutes just to gossip or to ask him questions about where he'd traveled. Those brief moments were often the highlight of Seogong's week.

Pon reminded him of a daughter he used to have years ago. She died in the arduous March back in '95. Sagong thought of her daily. When Sagong's supplier handed off the bag containing the Squid Game USBs, the man made it clear to the old smuggler that this product was something special.

Sagong didn't know that the Netflix show was taking over the world with its horrifically practical depiction of desperation and the careless cruelty powerful people show those beneath them. All he knew was that the USBs contained something popular that Pan would surely enjoy. So he kept one aside for when she next visited. Pan purchased Western goods from Sagong once or twice per month.

He never stayed in the same part of the city for more than a few days, but he would give Pan a hint about where she could find him in the future. Usually, she came alone, though there were a handful of times she brought along a shy-looking boy with an expensive cut to his clothes. He appeared to be around the same age as Pan, a high school student, and she introduced him with an obviously fake name. Seogang had warned Pan about that at their first meeting when she let her real name slip.

"Never trust anyone with that kind of information," Sagong told her. "Even a smuggler, especially a smuggler." She never made the same mistake twice. Sagong slipped her the USB with Squid Game that beautiful day on the docks, and he whispered a hint about where she could find him in the future. He was just settling back down in the alley with his back against the wall when he noticed Pond almost bump into the soldiers. Then she was running, fleeing the gray shapes,

For a sharp, panicked moment, Sagong considered running after them, tackling the men, giving Pan a better chance to escape. Then a more practical part of his brain reminded him he was old and tired, and even if his plan worked, it would mean dying. So instead, Sagong said a prayer for his customer and left the alley, wiggling through the crowd like a cat.

he would lay low for a few days and keep an eye out for the state police. If they caught Pan, they would come for him immediately. If nobody did within two or three days, that meant she escaped. It's been illegal to possess or distribute contraband from Western nations in North Korea for decades. However,

With the advancement of technology and ongoing shift to a more connected, virtual world, the North Korean government is cracking down even further on material they consider subversive media. The DPRNK passed the Elimination of Reactionary Thought and Culture Law in 2020, which officially carries penalties of hard labor, imprisonment,

or even death for watching, keeping, or distributing media from capitalist countries, with the harshest penalties leveled against media from South Korea and the United States. As a South Korean production for Netflix, an American company, Squid Game checked all of the boxes the state had in place to bring down the hammer on anyone caught watching or sharing the show. Ro Joom knew all about the law,

A classmate of Paan, Ryuk, and the rest of the Counterculture Club, Ro was a model student who dreamed of a comfortable government position. However, like everyone else in the Hermit Kingdom, Ro had a secret. He was in love with Paan, a fierce crush he'd carried since they were in grade school.

an affection that slowly calcified into an obsession. Seeing Pan and Ryuk walking in the hall, brushing their fingers together in that gentle way that they thought was so hidden, so clever, it made Ro physically sick. He assumed that Pan was after Ryuk because of his family connections and money. If you told Ro that the two teens were genuinely in love,

bonded over a shared sense of adventure and personal chemistry, he wouldn't believe it. That wouldn't line up with his worldview, which at 16 was already carved in stone. Part of that worldview was that the state was Ro's friend, his family, his protector, and that dear leader was to be loved and obeyed always. So when Ro began hearing rumors that Pon and her friends were watching capitalist media after school, he knew he had to act.

Despite his loyalty to the government, some small corner of Roe cared enough about Pon to motivate him to warn her one afternoon. Just as school was letting out, Roe stalked the hall searching for Pon. He would pull her aside, lecture her about the evils of Western society and the rot she was allowing into her mind. And Roe would remind her of the penalties if she was caught breaking the new thought and culture law

"Do you want SBG 109 knocking at your parents' door at midnight?" he planned to ask. "Do you want those big men with their big guns dragging you and your family and your friends into a black room? Are you ready to never see the sun again?" Ro was going to pose all of those questions to Pod, and he was confident she would see the error of her ways. She would swear off ever touching poisonous Western media again. She would be a good citizen and grateful to Ro for saving her.

Maybe she would even realize that Ro has always had her best interests in mind, that he was loyal, unlike that flighty daydreamer Ryuk, who was more than happy to get everybody into trouble. Once Pan understood the way the world worked, she would appreciate Ro. He was certain of that. Then Ro turned around a corner and caught sight of Pan and Ryuk standing together under a set of stairs.

They were half hidden in the shadows, but Ro still saw Pan stand on her tiptoes and lean forward to kiss the much taller Ryuk. The boy kissed her back only for a moment, and then both of them moved in opposite directions. They were trying to be more careful and discreet, but Ro saw enough to make his decision. Instead of following Pan to warn her, Ro turned around and headed to Mr. Zhiyong's classroom. Mr. Zhiyong was a good citizen,

He would want to hear what Rou had to tell him about the proliferation of Western poison within the school. Jiang Zhong was eager to hear Rou's story. Jiang was already suspicious of Pan and Ryuk and their little cluster of followers. The seven students seemed almost like a gang to Jiang. They were part of a lazy and entitled generation who rebelled against their own culture and leader.

The brats thought watching Western television and hiding Western clothing made them daring, that it was harmless fun. They had no idea how evil the world was outside of North Korea. Ji-Yong would not allow the teenagers to infect the rest of the school, his school. So Ji-Yong had a secret, but not one he would carry for long. The administration might not take the offense seriously enough. So Ji-Yong decided to go to his contacts at SBG 109.

He wasn't going to risk having other teachers intervene. They might try to protect the students or argue for leniency due to their young age. Ji-Hong couldn't have that. Counseling wouldn't fix what was wrong with their generation. Re-education wasn't enough. Even social stigma couldn't correct their course. No, he would make an example of Pan and her gang. They would burn to keep the rest of the school safe. You had to cut out rot from an apple before it could spread.

So Zhiyong took his secret to a tall, windowless stone building in downtown Pyongyang. He told his story to the men in gray suits inside of the building, and they thanked him for his service to the state, and they gave him a small reward and a commendation pin for his lapel. Zhiyong walked out of the doors into the cool sunshine of a perfect autumn day. The weather had been so fine for weeks, and everything was going so well.

Zhiyong walked down the busy street whistling softly, adjusting his pin every now and then to try to make it catch the light. Pan and her friends were taken immediately. Once they were officially accused, the response was efficient and vicious. Masked men in black jackets and tactical vests came for each of the seven students as they slept in their homes. Their families were rounded up as well. Anyone in the house was a potential malcontent.

Mr. Min Jung protested when a soldier shoved his daughter down the front steps. The man turned and cracked Pan's father in the jaw with the butt of his rifle. There was a lot of blood and a few teeth left on the sidewalk as the family was tossed into a black van. As they drove off, Pan held her crying mother close. Her father simply sat with his head down bleeding silently on the vehicle's floor.

Paan had only one secret left, but she didn't think she could keep it much longer. The men in the gray suits peeled them away from her one by one. Most of her day was spent in a pitch black room, too small to lay down in, too low to properly stand up. She could hear others nearby, maybe her friends or family. They were just far enough away that they couldn't communicate, but just close enough that she heard it whenever they screamed.

The only time Pawn wasn't in the dark box of her cell was when they brought her to the bright room to ask her questions. The fluorescents above were blinding and they bit at her eyes, which had become so accustomed to a lack of light. The men hurt Pawn. They starved her and wouldn't let her sleep, but mostly they talked to her. They told her what was coming, the shriveled life that waited for her once she left the building.

There would be no travel, no visiting new cities with Ryuk at her side, no sitting under the stars in exotic skies. We found your drawer and your little stash. Each item in there could get you five years of hard labor. The USB were that awful capitalist propaganda though. That one could mean execution for you and all of your friends. The hard men in gray gave Pan one choice to save her classmates. If she told them her last secret,

They promised that none of her friends would be dragged behind the building and shot. As the owner of the USB, Pon would spend her life in an isolated prison, locked in a dirty cell away from the sun. But she would live, and her classmates would each only receive five years at a labor camp for their crime of consuming Western media. So, shaking and crying, Pon told the men her last secret. She told them where they could find Sagong, the smuggler.

Ryuk was taken in the middle of the night and loaded into a blacked-out van just like his girlfriend. However, his parents were not abducted with him. Because of their position with the state, they were left at home on their own recognizance and told to report to SBG 109 offices in the morning. Instead, Ryuk's parents spent the night calling in every favor they'd hoarded across decades of public service.

In the end, Ryuk's disgrace cost his family all of their social standing, most of their friendships, a dozen owed promises, and one strategic bribe that amounted to roughly $3,000, which is a significant sum in North Korea. The cost was high, but Ryuk was freed after only a single day in the cell. His parents drove him home in silence.

Ryuk pleaded with them to intercede on behalf of his friends. He begged them to offer another bribe for Pan's release, but Ryuk's parents were stoned. They told him that he'd shamed their family, that their social credit would never recover, and that he was a disappointment as a son. Ryuk's parents would not risk themselves further by advocating for his friends. All he could do was look out the back window of their car at the building he'd just left.

The same windowless structure where Pan was trapped, sitting in the dark, awaiting her new reality. Zegong surprised himself when SBG-109 came for him. The old man ran from the secret police and he made a good showing of it before they brought him down. He was exactly where Pan guessed he would be. The soldiers mocked him as they dragged him away, taunting him with the information that Pan traded his life for her own and her friend's.

They thought knowing that would hurt Sagong, but it was just the opposite. His death meant that Pan would live. Even if she was destined for a hard, cruel life, she would be alive. Sagong smiled as they put a hood over his head and threw him in the van. Smugglers rarely grow. He'd had a good run.

According to Radio Free Asia, the seven high school students caught with knowledge of Squid Game were the first minors to ever be sentenced under the new Elimination of Reactionary Thought and Culture. The student who possessed the USB containing the show was given life imprisonment. The rest of the group was sentenced to five years hard labor at one of the DPRNK's infamous gulags.

All except for one of the students, who had rich and connected parents able to deliver a bribe big enough to make the trouble go away. Many of the teachers and administrators at the school where the incident occurred were also charged under the thought and culture law. Details on their sentencing are unavailable. Though it is rumored many were fired, some censored, and a few sent to work hard labor in remote mines.

The smuggler who brought the USB containing Squid Game over the border from China into North Korea was captured and sentenced to death. Radio Free Asia reports that this punishment will likely be carried out by firing squad. Reports indicated that the North Korean government is going after Western media harder than ever with the new law.

State agents are targeting K-pop and American popular music, even going after cars with tinted windows, since that small amount of privacy could conceal a citizen in the process of a thought and culture crime. SBG 109 operatives consider any Western media toxic, part of the yellow wind of capitalism. Officials are screening North Korean student text messages for any hints of South Korean spellings or slang.

Despite the risk of death or imprisonment, thousands of North Koreans smuggle in and consume outside entertainment every day. No matter how hard the government cracks down, a significant percentage of the population refuses to break. It's easy then.

to see some of the parallels between the desperate contestants in Squid Game risking their lives and fighting against a totalitarian organization and the average citizen struggling day to day to exist in the Hermit Kingdom.