Squid Game lays bare South Korea’s real-life personal debt crisis

Household debt is now equivalent to over 100% of GDP and has gone hand in hand with a dramatically widening income gap

After midnight, when the crowds of revellers have gone, Choi Young-soo* crouches in a shabby alleyway in Seoul's wealthy Gangnam district. This is the only time that the 35-year-old, a part-time food delivery rider, dare leave his tiny room at a cheap hostel he shares with about 30 other people.

The rooms, he says, are only slightly bigger than coffins".