On 'Squid Game:' A reaction from a North Korean defector

Sae-byeok, a North Korean defector, is among the participants in "Squid Game." Courtesy of Netflix

Cherie Yang is a North Korean refugee who became a U.S. citizen after escaping to the United States in 2007. During 2015-19, she lived in South Korea. She studied linguistics at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, was a TV personality, and still works with Freedom Speakers International in Seoul. ― Ed.

By Yang Che-rie

I am a North Korean defector living in the United States. After I finished watching "Squid Game," the first thought that came to mind is that the North Korean regime would try to use this film for propaganda purposes.

North Korea tightly controls access to outside information. It punishes North Koreans for watching foreign media content and even executes people publicly if they do so.

However, the regime does show footage of foreign news or films to brainwash North Koreans into believing that capitalist countries are sordid places where people kill their parents, friends and even their whole neighborhoods because of money.

I remember one time when I was young when the regime broadcast some South Korean news showing people protesting their government.

The lesson they wanted us to learn was that South Korea is a rotten place where people become beggars and go hungry, being left with no choice but to protest against their government, which does not hesitate to "beat and suppress" them.

It is hard to imagine that now. But back then, I thought the world outside of North Korea was scary and that South Korea was a cruel place. But my father told me: "Don't believe what the regime says. They are all lies. It is actually a privilege to be able to sit on the street like that and protest against the government. If people in North Korea had such a right to protest against the Kim regime, they would be crushed with tanks and shot with machine guns." He told me to keep in mind: "What you see or hear in this country is not everything. You must always consider all other possibilities. Always be a person who can think of things that you can't see or hear."

I felt like I had been hit in the head with a hammer. And I thought to myself: "Aha ― that's right, it's a privilege to be able to speak out for anything you think is right."

A series like "Squid Game" would be attractive to North Korean authorities, because it shows the flaws in the capitalist society ― people who are heavily in debt.

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Of course, it was so surprising and interesting to see a North Korean defector portrayed on the show. Sae-byeok is among the participants in the game.

Dawn (Sae Byeok) needs money to bring her mother from North Korea to South Korea. She dreams of living with her and her younger brother. That's why she decides to take part in the game.

Of course, it's a drama series, so it's a little exaggerated. But the conversation between her and her game partner, the daughter of a pastor, was particularly interesting. Her partner asked her why she had escaped to South Korea. Sae-byeok replied that she had thought South Korea was better than North Korea. And yet, there she was, in the game.

In my case, living in South Korea was so much better than North Korea; there is no comparison. This series emphasizes the dark side of capitalism, which is money, instead of the discrimination that many North Korean defectors experience in South Korea. But on the other hand, it's true that North Korean defectors work hard to earn money because they want to bring their families to South Korea or send money to their families in North Korea.

There are some other things about this series that I discussed in detail in a YouTube reaction video, including the games that were played, rewards in capitalism, and free will. The highlight of the series for me was the marble game. It presents the question of how moral humans can be in this situation.

The participants helped each other as a team until they got to this game. In the marble game, it is a dog-eat-dog situation, where either you die or the opposite side dies. It's a heartbreaking scene. In order to survive, people who had been kind to each other will lead their former partners to their deaths.

Watching this scene reminded me of the days of famine in North Korea.

Schoolteachers would teach morals to students who were starving and had not eaten in days. Starving children were being taught not to steal. However, it was common to see those children going to farms after school to steal and eat raw corn.

And what about the teachers? Teachers also went to farms after school and stole corn.

There was an innocent man who had never committed a crime in his entire life, but later stole and sold machinery from his workplace to save his family from starvation. He was executed in public for the crime of damaging state property.

The real contradiction is that children and people in North Korea were taught morals and compliance with the law both at school and at work. But once they came home, they would have to see their families suffering.

How moral can you be in this situation? The North Korean regime may try to present "Squid Game" as proof that capitalism is terrible, but most North Koreans know that their own version of "Squid Game" going on in North Korea every day, where people must fight for their very survival. The difference is that there are no prizes.

Casey Lartigue Jr., co-founder of Freedom Speakers International and a lecturer in public speaking at Seoul University of Foreign Studies, edited this text for publication.