‘Squid Game Election’: South Korean campaign gets ugly

By HYUNG-JIN KIM
Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The rivalry, mudslinging and negative campaigning between the two leading presidential candidates in South Korea are so bad that the loser faces a prospect of going to jail. Some are even calling it “The Squid Game election,” a reference to Netflix’s megahit survival drama where people are killed if they lose children’s games. With only several days left before the election on Wednesday, Lee Jae-myung from the liberal governing Democratic Party and Yoon Suk Yeol from the main conservative opposition People Power Party accuse each other of corruption. Such deep divisions reflect the troubles of the last three leaders, all of whom were investigated for graft after they left office. One died by suicide and the other two were sent to prison.