No ‘Squid Game’: South Korea's real-life debt trap

While foreigners may associate South Korea with the boyband BTS and sleek Samsung smartphones, the drama points to a dark flipside of rising personal borrowing, the highest suicide rate among advanced nations, and the rarity of getting free of debt.

Many small business owners in South Korea recognise themselves in the cash-strapped characters of the wildly popular Netflix drama 'Squid Game', who vie desperately for a chance to win $38 million, exposing a debt trap that is all too familiar.